Saving Women's Lives: Civil Society Organisations Launch NOTAGAIN Campaign to END Needless Maternal Deaths
No fewer than 75 media practitioners from print, broadcast and online media in Nigeria agreed to prioritize maternal health accountability issues in their reports to safeguard the lives of Nigerian women who die needless deaths in the process of pregnancy and child birth. The commitment was given during a series of one-day sensitization and launch of NOTAGAIN campaign held in Lagos, Jigawa and Kaduna States recently.
The sensitizations, which aimed at increasing media coverage of maternal health issues in Nigeria was organized by Development Communications (DevComs) Network, as part of a broader initiative supported by MacArthur Foundation to address accountability in maternal health in Nigeria. The sensitization pulled resource persons from civil society groups and health experts, including practicing gynaecologists and obstetricians in the three states. The final NOTAGAIN sensitizations, will be launched in Abuja by May 2014.
Other organizations supported by MacArthur Foundation under the Maternal health Accountability initiative include: Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Community Health and Research Initiative (CHR), Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON), Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) , Women’s Health and Action Research Centre (WHARC), and Advocacy Nigeria.
According to the Coordinator, NOTAGAIN campaign, Ayodele Adesanmi, NOTAGAIN campaign is a National Campaign slogan initiated by a number of MacArthur Foundation’s grantees in a bid to work towards achieving the overall goal of bringing maternal mortality ratio in Nigeria to its barest minimum.
In addition, Ayodele unveiled the NOTAGAIN campaign website (www.notagaincampaign.org) which according to him was developed to assist the journalists in sourcing materials for maternal and child health stories. Other online platforms for NOTAGAIN CAMPAIGN include -- Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Google plus
Speaking on topical issues in maternal and child health in Nigeria, the President of Maternal and Child Health Partnership in Kaduna State, Mrs. Dorcas Adeyemi identified low access to maternal health care, low emergency obstetric care and inadequate skilled personnel at health facilities as key issues that need urgent interventions. Speaking on the same issue, the Deputy Director, Women Advocates Research & Documentation Center (WARDC), Mrs. Grace Ketefe, who was speaking on behalf of Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi (Director) during the sensitization in Lagos State, said the risk of maternal deaths in delivery is significantly greater for women in the northern regions of the country, in rural areas, in low-income groups, and without formal education, than for those in the southern regions, in urban areas, in middle-to-high income groups, and with formal education.
While sharing a report of Independent Assessment of Lagos State Primary Health Care facilities, the Executive Director of Innovation Matter and member of Lagos State Civil Society Partnership, Ms. Dede Kadiri, said 30 PHCs were surveyed in Lagos State, out of which 12 PHCs complained of inadequate staffing and of being overworked, 10 PHCs do not have any supplies to handle emergency conditions at all, and 10 out of 29 PHCs claimed they do not have power supply back up.
A consultant gynaecologist, RSSH Specialist Hospital, Dutse, Dr. Abba Ahmad, while speaking on ‘Reducing Maternal Deaths: Where we are and the way forward’ said the disparity in maternal mortality ratio in north-east, north-west and south-west was due to education and socio-cultural beliefs. He decried practices where men prevent their wives from accessing maternal care because they do not want male doctors to see their wives’ nakedness.
Dr. Abba recommends an integration of TBAs in health system as a way forward to reducing maternal deaths. According to him, it will be difficult to discard them immediately, stressing that they lack expertise and skills to detect signs of complications before labour and adequately prepare for them.
The gynaecologist also emphasize on the need to empower women with information since more children contribute to more poverty and less likelihood of accessing health care.
Speaking about maternal mortality in Nigeria, a professor of gynaecologist and obstetrics at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Oladapo Shittu, said Nigeria ranks 10th amongst countries with worst MMR alongside countries recently faced with war and poverty. According to him, insecurity in the country is worsening maternal mortality ratio. ‘’Women die about 10 times more in the North-East than South-West in the same country’’ he said. The professor explained further that factors responsible for maternal mortality ratio were close to socio-cultural issues peculiar to the people and region. He called on stakeholders to learn from one another to reduce maternal deaths.
Describing maternal mortality in Nigeria and the way forward, a consultant gynaecologist, Randle General Hospital, Surulere, Dr. Adeleke Kaka, said ‘’maternal mortality is a disaster, worse than Boko Haram or missing Malaysian airplane’’. He emphasized the saying of Prof. Mahmoud Fathalla who said ‘’women are not dying because of diseases we cannot treat. They are dying because societies have yet to make the decision that their lives are worth saving.’’
While sharing a report of Independent Assessment of Lagos State Primary Health Care facilities, the Executive Director of Innovation Matter and member of Lagos State Civil Society Partnership, Ms. Dede Kadiri, said 30 PHCs were surveyed in Lagos State, out of which 12 PHCs complained of inadequate staffing and of being overworked, 10 PHCs do not have any supplies to handle emergency conditions at all, and 10 out of 29 PHCs claimed they do not have power supply back up.
A consultant gynaecologist, RSSH Specialist Hospital, Dutse, Dr. Abba Ahmad, while speaking on ‘Reducing Maternal Deaths: Where we are and the way forward’ said the disparity in maternal mortality ratio in north-east, north-west and south-west was due to education and socio-cultural beliefs. He decried practices where men prevent their wives from accessing maternal care because they do not want male doctors to see their wives’ nakedness.
Dr. Abba recommends an integration of TBAs in health system as a way forward to reducing maternal deaths. According to him, it will be difficult to discard them immediately, stressing that they lack expertise and skills to detect signs of complications before labour and adequately prepare for them.
The gynaecologist also emphasize on the need to empower women with information since more children contribute to more poverty and less likelihood of accessing health care.
Speaking about maternal mortality in Nigeria, a professor of gynaecologist and obstetrics at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Oladapo Shittu, said Nigeria ranks 10th amongst countries with worst MMR alongside countries recently faced with war and poverty. According to him, insecurity in the country is worsening maternal mortality ratio. ‘’Women die about 10 times more in the North-East than South-West in the same country’’ he said. The professor explained further that factors responsible for maternal mortality ratio were close to socio-cultural issues peculiar to the people and region. He called on stakeholders to learn from one another to reduce maternal deaths.
Describing maternal mortality in Nigeria and the way forward, a consultant gynaecologist, Randle General Hospital, Surulere, Dr. Adeleke Kaka, said ‘’maternal mortality is a disaster, worse than Boko Haram or missing Malaysian airplane’’. He emphasized the saying of Prof. Mahmoud Fathalla who said ‘’women are not dying because of diseases we cannot treat. They are dying because societies have yet to make the decision that their lives are worth saving.’’
Dr. Kaka, while suggesting the way forward urged government to demonstrate the will and courage to provide basic and comprehensive emergency obstetric care services in health facilities, increase access to effective methods of contraception, strengthen the PHCs. However, the gynecologist refused to put all blames on the government as everybody has a role to play; ''reducing maternal deaths requires concerted efforts by all. It is beyond mere statement of intention or the rat race to achieving MDGs 2015’’ he said.
Other speakers at the sensitizations included DevComs Network Consultant in Lagos, Bolaji Adepegba and Iliya Kure of JOBETH Kaduna, who charged the journalists on quality and balanced reportage of maternal health issues.
culled from http://devcomsnetwork.org/index.php/en/37-saving-women-s-lives-civil-society-organizations-launch-notagain-campaign-to-end-needless-maternal-deaths
Chidinma Onuoha
Cooordinator, Cornucopia E-books
08066656255
www.cornucopiaebooks.com
Great Article! Everyone should be on board!
ReplyDelete