Health experts advocate free maternal health services in Nigeria

To reduce the high rates of maternal deaths in Nigeria, the government must prioritise health and ensure free access to maternal health services especially in rural communities, some health experts have advocated.

These experts who spoke during a one-day summit themed ‘Re-echoing Voices for Family Planning Funding and Need to Make Maternal Health Services Free by Incoming Political Leaders” agreed that access to free maternal care is a major way to end high mortality rate in the country.

The summit was organised by the Association of Nigeria Health Journalists (ANHEJ) with support from Advocacy in Child and Family Health at Scale (PACFaH@scale), anchored by the development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC).

Speaking at the summit on Thursday, the President, Association for Reproductive & Family Health (ARFH), Oladapo Ladipo, said it is important for the government to place health issues at the front burner to guarantee meaningful development in the country.

Mr Ladipo said health is a basic human right and that when health is absent “wisdom cannot manifest itself”.

He said making health the number one priority on the government agenda will go a long way to reduce the challenges in the sector.

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Also, he explained that adequate funding is required to provide quality health services and reduce maternal deaths.

“Maternal deaths in Nigeria are very shameful; we have all it takes to make things right,” he said.

“Women are about 50 per cent of the country’s population and no woman should die in the process of giving birth,” he said.

Maternal Mortality

Nigeria’s Maternal Mortality Rate is still among the highest in the world, with an estimated 512 deaths per 100,000 live births.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa says that one in seven global maternal deaths occurs in Nigeria. That is more than 50,000 women dying per year in Nigeria.

About 95 per cent of deaths during childbirth are, however, preventable.

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Exploring family planning

Mr Ladipo said Family Planning (FP) services should also be made free and compulsory for all women of reproductive age.

He said it is advisable for a woman to have no more than three children and they should be well-spaced.

He said this will ensure the woman’s body gets the required rest it needs to survive.

Similarly, the Chairman of the Association for the Advancement of Family Planning (AAFP), Ejike Orji, said, lack of access to and utilisation of FP services in Nigeria should be a concern for every patriotic Nigerian.

Mr Orji, who is also the focal person of FP2030 in Nigeria, said the nation is on the verge of forming new sets of leaders “who will control and allocates resources.”

He said there is a need for them to understand the prevailing climate in the ecosystem as they take the paddles of leadership at all levels.

“Since FP started to secure a budget line in the Federal Ministry of Health, the allocation to this important service to humanity has never been up to 1 per cent of the health budget,” he said.

He said there should be a policy thrust to reverse the horrible trend, noting that poor funding could lead to more maternal deaths.

In his remarks, Director of Programmes at the PACFaH@scale, Stanley Ukpai, said FP blueprint will expire in 2024, yet the 27 per cent prevalence rate has not been achieved.

Mr Ukpai said the new administration should consider ways to manage the population to see how they can contribute to the productivity of the country.

“And there is a policy and a system in place being implemented by the office of the vice president in the human capital development process.

“When we talk about population management, it is all encompassing so that the population that we already have will begin to contribute to economic processes and productivity and take Nigeria through this recovery process,” he said.