‘More women may die from pregnancy complications in Niger’

 Justina Asishana, Minna

CHILD Spacing stakeholders in Niger State have warned the state government that more women may die from pregnancy complications in the state due to poor funding for family planning and severe funding shortages to Child Spacing Advocacy amidst the Covid-19 pandemic response.

The stakeholders expressed their fears in a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting of the technical working group on Child Spacing and the Adolescent Youth Reproductive Health in Niger State.

The group expressed concern over the lumping of family planning budget with the budget of other programmes in Niger State health budget, which has led to inadequate funding releases to family planning, adding that this has increased possibilities of complications and death among women of reproductive age in the state.

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In the communiqué issued by the group and signed by the Project Director of the Centre for Communication and Reproductive Health (CCRHS), Dr Aliyu Yabagi Shehu, the group expressed fear that Niger State government may not meet the Contraceptive Prevalent Rate (CPR) target of 25 per cent by 2020.

The group, which reminded the state government of its 2017 commitment of increasing the state CPR from 6 per cent to 25 per cent, pointed out that the Contraceptive Prevalent Rate is the determinant factor to women dying as a result of reproductive health and pregnancy complications.