Regina Otokpa in Abuja
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has said that no fewer than 111 women die daily in Nigeria during child birth.
UNFPA Representative to Nigeria, Dr. Diene Keita, made this known on Tuesday in Abuja, at an event organised by the International Council of Nurses National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives to celebrate the 2018 International Day of the Midwife with the theme, ‘A Voice to Lead’.
According to her, these deaths were as a result of the growing inability of women to access adequate and quality health care services at the health facilities, despite the various interventions.
Keita, who commended the efforts of midwives in curbing the death rate of women and new born through their professional skills daily, urged the federal and state governments to deploy more midwives to health facilities to ensure more women and new born were safe.
“Thanks to midwives, millions of women each year are able to exercise their rights in sexual and reproductive health services including voluntary family planning.
“These services help ensure wanted, healthy pregnancies and safe births yet, far too many women die in Nigeria for lack of access to these services. To be precise, 111 women die everyday in trying to give life.
“We advocate radical policy framework and good working conditions to ensure the deployment and retention of well trained midwives. We need to maintain the highest global standards and promote the enabling environment for midwives to efficiently serve the women and their families.
“I urge the government at all levels and the development partners to join all of us here in supporting midwives to ensure women survive with their families,” she added.
The Vice-President, National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives, Mrs. Margaret Akinsola, said qualified midwives would take care of not less than 87 per cent needs of both women and new born.
To this end, she called on the federal government to address the salient issues confronting midwives, so as to cut down to the barest minimum, the huge number of maternal mortality across the country.
She also stressed on the need for immediate restructuring of all health facilities, and the harmonised remuneration of midwives in every nook and cranny of the country, adequate security and referral system.
“We are calling for harmonised remuneration irrespective of where you work. Whether you are a midwife working in a community health centre, or you are in the local government headquarters, the state or federal government health facility, we want a flat rate so that this issue of leaving the rural area to the urban area because of remuneration will come to an end,” she said.
