Women's Day event raises $30,000 for maternal health

Women's Day event raises $30,000 for maternal health

Guilty as charged: Nigerians blamed for alarming rise in infant mortality

WHEREAS the drop in Nigeria’s death rate is expected to reflect a general drop in mortality rate, the reverse appears to be the case. Statistics show that almost 800,000 Nigerian children die every year before the age of five. This makes Nigeria the nation with the highest number of infant deaths in Africa. While experts have continued to disagree on the rate of infant death in the country, it was discovered that nearly everyone is responsible for the alarming infant mortality rate in the world’s sixth largest oil producer CHARLES KUMOLU reports.

BEING the only child of her mother, she did not fail to tell anyone that her expected baby would make up for the brother or sister she never had. This must have been why at 23, she was worried about how to have her baby and build a career, having graduated as a laboratory scientist the previous year.

It was for this reason that her joy climaxed, when her Expected Date of Delivery (EDD) came. Because she was given a clean slate during her numerous ante-natal visits, Mrs. Obehi Ebie nursed no fears when her labour started. Her trip to the hospital for delivery yielded no result, as she was discharged same day because her EDD was not due. Back home, the labour pains became severe. Faced with no option, she was rushed back to the clinic.

Four days down the line, Mrs. Ebie and her unborn baby were still in severe stress, despite inducement by the doctors in order to facilitate the delivery. Even her cries for surgery were ignored, as the doctors were still giving assurances that she would be delivered normally. While all these were going on, the expectant mother’s strength was failing giving way to weakness.-a reason why cesarean section became the unavoidable option.

But that was too late, as she died in the theatre before the surgery would be carried out. “It was shocking that she died, but the way she was when she was being wheeled to the theatre indicated that she may not make it because she was already exhausted,” Christy Edevor, a friend of the deceased told this reporter.

What could have been responsible for the delayed labour? Was she and her unborn baby victims of the doctor’s negligence? While these questions remain to be answered, the death of mother and child is one out of the litany of maternal and infant mortality cases in Nigeria. Instructively, Vanguard Features VF, gathered that the data on the ever-increasing infant mortality rate in Nigeria is not only surprising, but pathetic.

241,000 babies die in the first month of birth annually

That finding was also supported by a 2011 Saving Newborn Lives in Nigeria report.

The report stated that there is drop in death toll, but insisted that the percentage of deaths that happen in the first month of life is increasing.

“Newborn deaths now make up 28 percent of all deaths under five years compared to 24percent two years ago. Six out of 10 mothers give birth at home without access to skilled care during childbirth and it is in the first few days of life when both women and newborns are mostly at risk. Every year, 241,000 babies die in the first month of life in Nigeria making it the African country with the highest newborn death toll,” the report observed,

The report also noted that nearly 3,000 mothers, newborns and children die every day.

“But there is a big difference between states, between urban and rural areas and between the poorest and the richest. This is partly due to the fact that, although the Nigerian health system is rich in human resources compared to many other African countries, there is inequitable distribution of maternal, newborn and child health staff across the country. For example, while over 90 percent of women in two states – Anambra and Imo – give birth with a skilled attendant present, in six states – Katsina, Jigawa, Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, and Yobe, fewer than one in ten women have access to skilled care at birth,” it stated.

Although the report appears to reflect the mood of many in the country, VF gathered that some stakeholders don’t seem to generally agree with some of the statistics.

Poverty is unleashing death on infants For instance, a former Chairman of Lagos State Board of Traditional Medicine, Dr. Bunmi Omosenyindemi, told VF that the dysfunctional healthcare system in Nigeria, would not allow for a report that would reflect the challenges in infant mortality rate.

“It is not just that some people have come from the UN with data and people would accept it like that. Are we relying on those data, we should ask if the data reflect our own needs. We are in a country where the ratio is about thirty doctors to about hundred patients, with a population of about one hundred and fifty million. What can you expect in this kind of system How do you expect a country that does not have good healthcare system to develop? That is why we keep having high infant mortality rate, high cases of tuberculosis, and high incidence of malaria,” he noted.

Omosenyindem however acknowledged that child mortality is still a nagging problem, but insisted that there is need to fight poverty, which he believes is among the leading causes of infant deaths in Nigeria.

“What we are doing is that we don’t try to know the cause of the problem. The system is bad due to inadequate manpower, infrastructure, inconsistent government policies and inadequate primary health care which are basic necessities. And the level of poverty is high in our country, we are in a country where we don’t produce drugs and most of the drugs we have are fake drugs, what do you expect?, These are the issues we need to look into. We need to sit down and do a proper check of the situation based on what we have, not what people will come and tell us that the prevalent rate of a certain disease is high here, when they rarely traversed the length and breadth of this country,”he submitted.

Govt should not be generally blamed While Omosenyindem’s position does not totally dismiss the report, a pediatrician Dr. Odion Odiboh believes that the argument on whether the rate is high or not is not the issue at stake.

Odiboh, who is a consultant to a Non Governmental Organisation, (NGO) that advocates against infant mortality, Afribaby, told VF that infant death toll is still discouraging in the country.

Citing poverty which was earlier pointed out by Omosenyindem among other factors, he said, “I was in Abuja recently for Pan Conference of Pediatricians where the issue was deliberated upon. At that conference of Pediatrics Association of Nigeria (PAN), the international bodies were saying that it is on the high side, while the local stakeholders were saying no to the figures. There was no meeting point,” he noted.

Continuing, he said: “ Whether the report is foreign or local, it is on the increase. We can have disputes about figures because we are not good at keeping statistics. We only keep money in this country and not data for planning. Whatever figure we have at hand, the mortality rate is still discouraging. It still shows that mortality rate is high. The one from the international community is still saying that it is high. So what is the dispute all about? Rather, we should seek for solutions. And that is what we are doing here with this exhibition. We want to call the attention of all stakeholders to the problem on ground, because every stakeholder needs to get involved in the fight to reduce mortality rate. If hospitals are working hard and hospitals are not supporting, nothing good will come out.”

As far as he is concerned, “babies die not because they want to die, but because of the prevailing circumstances in our society. Every time we hear about babies being abandoned in hospitals. It is not that the parents are happy with running away, it is because they don’t have the means to pay their bills. Sometimes you find yourself in a position that the baby’s death becomes a relief. It is a relief because you will not spend the money after the baby dies. It still put us in a situation of neglect.”

Regardless of these dissenting views on whether infants die in multitudes in Nigeria or not, further checks corroborated Odiboh’s position on the issue.

For instance, it was gathered that efforts by organisations like UNICEF, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, among others in the reduction of infant deaths in Nigeria have not met general expectations. Thus, child mortality, which UNICEF reportedly said has reduced from 25,000 deaths per day to 22,000 now, is still a thing to worry about in Nigeria.

In the same vein, a 2009 The State of the World’s Children’ report by the agency, painted a horrible picture of the issue.

The report rates Nigeria as the eighth worst performing country in a list of 148 nations assessed in 2007 on under-five mortality. According to the report, t 189 new babies died in every 1,000 live births.

The rankings show that Nigeria fell behind Sierra Leone which placed first with 262, Afghanistan rated second with 257 deaths, Chad with 209, and Equatorial Guinea with 206 deaths in every 1,000 live births.

Others nations include Mali with 198, Burkina Faso (191), Rwanda with 181, Burundi (180) and Niger with 176 deaths in 1,000 live births respectively.

The report noted that causes of infant mortality include poor neonatal condition, which causes 26 percent of the deaths; malaria 24 per cent; pneumonia 20 per cent; diarrhoea 16 per cent; measles six per cent; HIV and AIDS five per cent, and others, three per cent.

It also identified asphyxia, 27 percent; premature births, 23.4 percent; infection in blood, 23.1 percent; neonatal tetanus, 10.4 per cent; congestible conditions, 6.5 per cent; diarrhoea, 3.9 per cent, and other causes 7.2 per cent.

Nonetheless, beyond the question of screaming poverty and diseases in most homes , VF discovered that nannies also contribute to growing rate of infant deaths.

“These people that we call care givers, who take care of our babies when we go for conferences need to be trained. We have situations where a nanny will give the babies pills so that they can stop crying and sleep off. On the streets of Lagos, we see some women carrying babies and those babies are forever asleep. They give them pills so that they can use them for arms collection. And those babies are hired out by nannies,” Odiboh alleged.

While this may sound surprising to many, who had hitherto seen the hiring of nannies as a way out of some stress of nursing babies, a Public Health expert Dr. Paul Ekandem corroborated Odiboh’s revelation.

Hear him: “Yes it is possible, you know we are in a country where everyone wants to make money through any means. The nanny system needs to be made professional in this country, because we don’t know what they do to babies in our absence. There is a social factor in mortality cases but people think babies only die through illnesses; the social angle should also be looked into”.