Nwamaka Onyemelukwe is the director of public affairs, communications, and sustainability at Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited. In this interview with DAVID IJASEUN, she speaks on her organisation’s efforts in tackling neonatal mortality. Excerpts:
As a daughter, sister, wife, and mother, what does International Mother’s Day (IMD) mean to you?
When I think of International Mother’s Day, the first things that come to mind are birth, growing up, childhood, and living. It is because, before becoming anything, each person must be safely delivered to this world to have a chance of being counted among the living.
With the birth of a child, both mother and child embrace life; the child grows into a daughter and sister, and the mother lives again, as a wife and sister, with the hope of becoming a grandmother. Womanhood is the most indicative of life’s phases.
However, recalling this brings to mind that in some countries, including Nigeria, the journey of conception and delivery can be a near-death experience. I’ve been through three of these stages and can attest that motherhood can be both exciting and challenging.
I think that mothers should be celebrated every day and that no expense should be spared to ensure that mothers’ efforts in keeping life going are recognised. Every mother is deserving of being pampered, adored, and encouraged.
I support Mother’s Day because, with both the child and the mother alive, the responsibility of nurturing, particularly in the early years of childhood, falls primarily on the mother.
Apart from pampering and socialising, how do you think mothers should be celebrated?
It’s worth noting that Anna Jarvis (1864), the American gender activist widely credited with “inventing” Mother’s Day, was so focused on the sacrifices and risks of motherhood that she spent the majority of her time working to reduce infant mortality.
According to legend, she spent much of her time teaching women how to care for their children to reduce infant mortality. That is the level of selflessness at the heart of motherhood, as well as the concept of Mother’s Day.
With this in mind, I will advocate for the entire society to revisit this script, knowing that the child of today will be the mother or father of tomorrow, but only if the mother of today plays her role exceptionally well.
And I dare to say that, unless society consciously makes provisions for the necessary support, today’s mother would be hampered from playing her role very well.
Some countries, including Nigeria, must intensify their efforts to combat neonatal and maternal mortality. According to experts, the infant mortality rate in Nigeria is 58.23 per 1000 births.
They attribute this to a variety of factors, including infection, premature birth, asphyxia, or congenital anomalies, as well as a lack of neonatal care facilities in Nigerian hospitals.
For example, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), “the most common direct causes of maternal injury and death are excessive blood loss, infection, high blood pressure, unsafe abortion, and obstructed labor, as well as indirect causes such as anemia, malaria, and heart disease.”
The majority of maternal deaths are avoidable with prompt intervention by a skilled health professional working in a supportive environment.” This helps to explain why the Coca-Cola System is devoting so much effort to combating this scourge through the Safe Birth Initiative (SBI).
We prioritize this because, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Nigeria currently contributes 10percent to the global neonatal death rate, which stands at 576 per 100,000 live births. According to UNICEF, Nigeria’s neonatal mortality rate is 56.220 deaths per 1000 live births, a 2.57 percent decrease from 2021.
Can you shed some light on the SBI?
The Safe Birth Initiative is a sustainability agenda of Coca-Cola Nigeria designed to support and strengthen Nigeria’s healthcare capacity in reducing the alarming rate of neonatal and maternal mortality, to meet the SDG goals for maternal and newborn mortality.
This intervention, worth $10.8 million is to purchase maternal and neonatal medical equipment to fully equip hospitals for the preparatory rooms, operating suites and recovery rooms, maternity wards, and neonatal wards at the fifteen (15) public hospitals chosen.
The initiative was launched in 2018 in collaboration with the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, the Federal Ministry of Health, and Medshare International, a US-based international non-governmental organization.
The SBI has been reducing maternal and infant mortality in Nigeria by providing neonatal units in over ten teaching hospitals and Federal Medical Centres (FMC) with the necessary infrastructure to aid safe deliveries and post-delivery care for mothers and babies, including intensive care provisions to aid professional management of delivery complications.
Read also: Analysts decry Nigeria’s poor primary healthcare system
How has the SBI influenced Nigeria’s healthcare system since its inception?
Over 56,000 families have benefited from the initiative, with over 21,000 mothers and babies receiving professional medical care – both in terms of equipment and personnel.
In addition to donating medical equipment, Coca-Cola Nigeria has successfully trained over 150 Biomedical Engineers and 400 end-users to ensure optimal equipment utilization and maintenance.
The training aims to promote a maintenance culture and the rehabilitation of abandoned medical equipment. We are also assisting in reducing downtime at various medical facilities in Nigeria.
The SBI’s impact can be seen across Nigeria in terms of geographical spread. Federal Medical Center, Ebute-Metta, University of Port-Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, Wesley Guild Hospital Ilesha, Abuja National Hospital, and Alimosho General Hospital are among the medical facilities impacted by the SBI, with more hospitals in the works.
What does the SBI have planned for 2022?
We are pleased with the impact the SBI is having and remain motivated to continue supporting Nigeria’s healthcare system.
We will donate more cutting-edge medical equipment to more teaching hospitals and FMCs across Nigeria for this purpose, as well as build capacity for biomedical engineers and end-users to ensure maximum uptime of the donated equipment.
What is the SBI’s ultimate goal?
Our main goal, which we are working hard to achieve, is that no family should ever lose a mother or a newborn child due to a lack of equipment at a critical stage of delivery or a lack of functional lifesaving medical equipment in Nigerian healthcare institutions.
Our goal in Nigeria is to make our maternal and child care interventions sustainable. We will work to form partnerships with like-minded organizations and donors to ensure the scheme’s long-term viability and reach.
We believe that by forming a network of partners, we can secure the scheme’s future and increase its impact. That being said, I’d like to join other good people all over the world in honoring our grandmothers, mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters. Happy Mother’s Day, ladies! Continue to sustain God’s great work of creation.
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