Don blames maternal deaths on illiteracy

The Chairman, Society of Gynaecology and
Obstetrics, Prof. Oluwarotimi Akinola, has
blamed high rate of illiteracy among
women in the North for the high rates of
maternal deaths recorded in the region.

Akinola, who delivered the guest lecture,
titled "Race to 2015, How far?", at the
Ordinary General Meeting and Scientific
Conference organised by Medical Guild in
Lagos on Wednesday, said due to lack of
education, many women did not have the
needed information that could save their
lives during pregnancy and after delivery.

He said a study conducted in Zaria among
22,000 women showed that the women
that registered for ante-natal or had their
babies in the hospital were those that had
either secondary or tertiary education.
He said, "The role of education in reducing
the number of pregnant women dying
before or after delivery is very important.

Over 70 per cent of the women in the
North cannot read and they are not
empowered to know that it is a midwife
that should take their delivery and not a
traditional birth attendant.

"A woman that is educated would enrol for
ante natal and also insist that she wants to
go to the hospital to deliver her baby but a
woman that is not empowered or literate
will not recognise quacks or danger signs
in pregnancy."

Akinola also noted that another factor
responsible for maternal deaths in the
country was delay in getting pregnant
women during labour to hospitals due to
poor transportation networks.

The consultant gynaecologist noted that
most cases of maternal deaths in Nigeria
occurred in the first 24 hours before and
after delivery and to avert this, Akinola
called on government to provide facilities
for emergency obstetric care.
"Most women die either during labour or
within 24 hours of delivery. Anything can
go wrong after a woman gives birth.

It is
left to government to ensure that when
things go wrong and they come to the
hospital, they do not meet a queue, or that
we have the consultant or doctor to attend
to them."
He noted that lack of accurate data on the
number of women dying during delivery
was the bane of maternal care in Nigeria.

"The introduction of Maternal Death
Review, a strategy to help in reducing
maternal deaths, is necessary. It is a
strategy to identify what causes deaths
and how it can be avoided," he said.

The Chairman, Medical Guild, Lagos State, Dr.
Olumuyiwa Odusote, called on civil
organisations and non-governmental
organisations to increase advocacy and
pressure on government to put in facilities
to reduce maternal and child deaths in the
country.

He said, "It is important that everyone,
including civil organisations get involved
in the fight, in reducing maternal mortality.
They are the ones that can mount pressure
on government to salvage this
embarrassing situation.

"There must also be awareness for all
women on the danger signs in pregnancy
so that once they see the signs they should
visit the healthcare provider immediately.

If government can dedicate itself and put
in the right amount of funds in the right
places, we can achieve the set goal of
reducing maternal mortality to 75 per cent
in 2015," he said.

He noted that challenges of distance to
health care centres, due to bad roads and
lack of good transport system, could only
be addressed by the Federal Government,
hence the need for them to provide
adequate resources to reduce maternal
deaths by half in 2015.

Odusote said that there was need to get
health care as close as possible to the
people for quick and easy accessibility to
such facilities.

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