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Tag: babies

  • Let babies enjoy breastfeeding, Commissioner tells fathers

    Let babies enjoy breastfeeding, Commissioner tells fathers

    The Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Mr Steve Ayorinde, has urged fathers not to compete for space with their babies during the period of breastfeeding.

    Ayorinde gave the advice during a Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign organised by the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) Lagos State chapter.

    The event featured a five-kilometre Health Walk in Ikeja.

    Represented by Mrs Toro Oladapo, a former NAWOJ President and the Director, Public Affairs, Lagos State Ministry of Information, Ayorinde urged fathers to leave the breast for the babies during the period.

    He said fathers should support the mothers to properly breastfeed new born babies, describing exclusive breastfeeding as vital during the first six months of life.

    According to him, breastfeeding should be encouraged till the baby reaches two years for healthy child development.

    Ayorinde told the female journalists to continue the advocacy for a healthy nation.

    “Nothing is natural like breast milk,” he said, noting that human milk is better for babies than animal milk.

    The commissioner emphasised the agenda-setting role of the media in promoting the right attitude toward healthy child development and urged NAWOJ not to relent in its efforts.

    “The media should help ensure mothers are breastfeeding to raise a healthy nation. You will all agree with me that children that are breastfed distinguish themselves academically,’’ he said.

    According to him, women, in the past, used breastfeeding for child-spacing and family planning, urging NAWOJ to spread the awareness.

    NAWOJ Chairperson Alhaja Sekinat Lawal, appealed to all tiers of government to implement policies that encourage breastfeeding.

    She condemned violence against women, pointing out that violence could affect the flow of milk to new-born babies.

    Lawal said the fitness walk was aimed at keeping journalists healthy.

    “We are trying to inculcate the habit of exercise in our members,’’ she said.

    Lawal said journalists were always busy people who had a tendency to forget their health, hence, the walk was organised as part of activities of the breastfeeding week.

     

  • Keeping babies out of deformity’s way

    Keeping babies out of deformity’s way

    Sometimes there can be an abnormal number of chromosomes in a cell. This could be either additional or missing chromosomes. According to experts, this is known as aneuploidy and it accounts for the majority of inherited disease syndrome in babies. OYEYEMI GBENGA-MUSTAPHA writes that there are scientific ways out.

    Mr Akeem Odunfa and his wife Mary have battled infertility for eight years. The husband is a 42-year-old albino; the wife is 33. Aside the challenge of infertility, they fear if Mrs Odunfa concieves, she may give birth to an albino.

    They made their fears known at an uptown fertility clinic where they enrolled for fertility treatment. To their surprise, Dr. Ololade Oyetunji, a consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Nordica Fertility Centre that attended to them assured them that they could, have a child free of albinism or any inherited disorder. The couple did not  disbelieve. They were counselled on how they could be helped.

    Thirteen months after, they held their babies – triplets, and none had the disorder.

    They can be described as being lucky, because to go through miscarriage after miscarriage, or to have an advanced pregnancy terminated because a significant abnormality has been found at pre-natal screening can be depressing.

    So, how was this couple helped and how can syndrome such as stammering, blindness, deafness, ‘vitiligo’, Tuner syndrome, cancer, Down syndrome, sickle cell, among others be  tackled before conception?

    The Medical Director/Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Nordica Fertility Clinic, Dr Abayomi Ajayi said Nigeria has joined countries that can scientifically assist parents with the over 600 inherited diseases to avoid giving birth to babies with susceptible or confirmed inherited diseases. It is through pre-natal screening: pre-implantation genetic screening (PGS), but principally through pre-implanation genetic diagnosis (PGD). The two  are involved in In-vitro Fertilisation (IVF).

    Ajayi said to understand how inherited diseases are formed in babies through aneuploidy, one must understand that the nucleus of almost every cell in the human body has a chromosome make-up (or karyotype) of 23 pairs of chromosomes making a total of 46.

    He explained: “Half of each pair of chromosomes is inherited from the mother and half from the father.The exceptions are mature red blood cells which do not contain a nucleus and eggs and sperm which only contain half the complement of chromosomes. The first 22 pairs of chromosomes are called autosomes while the 23rd pair are the sex chromosomes (X or Y). Every egg contains an X chromosome, while a sperm may carry either an X or Y chromosome. A female will have two X chromosomes and a male an X and a Y chromosome. The sex of an individual will therefore depend on whether an X bearing or Y bearing sperm fertilises the egg. A female has a 46XX karyotype and the male 46XY.

    “Sometimes there can be an abnormal number of chromosomes in a cell. There may either be additional or missing chromosomes. This is known as aneuploidy and accounts for the majority of inherited disease syndromes. When there is an extra chromosome instead of a pair this is called trisomy. In a live birth, the commonest trisomy to occur among the 22 pairs of autosomes is trisomy 21 (Down syndrome). Trisomy can affect the sex chromosomes too: 47XYY (Klinefelter’s Syndrome). Autism is difficult to pinpoint and cannot be prevented for now because it has a multifacetness. Its cause has not been established. Monosomy is the term used when there is a missing half to a pair of chromosomes. An example of this is Turner’s syndrome where there is a missing sex chromosome (45X0).

    “Rarely can there even be four or five copies of a chromosome. When there is aneuploidy, this does not necessarily affect every cell. This patchy distribution of unaffected and affected cells is called mosaicism. To complicate matters further, there can be partial aneuplody where there is a genetic imbalance caused by the addition or loss of only a part of a chromosome, a situation referred to as unbalanced translocation. Every other over 600 diseases that have been identified due to chromosomal abnormality can be prevented.”

    And for PGD,  Dr Ajayi said, “IVF is carried out as well. By the third day the embryo will contain six to eight cells (blastomeres). The embryologist removes one to two blastomeres for testing. Embryos that are found to carry the faulty gene that causes the specific inherited disease are allowed to perish/resolve. One to three embryos that are free from the genetic disorder can then be transferred. If there are any suitable additional tested embryos, these can be stored for future use by freezing.”

    How precisely can this be done? Abayomi said it is through a simple clinical procedure, “It is possible to detect chromosomal abnormaities by analysing the pattern of chromosomes in cells. This is called karyotyping. There are a number of other refined techniques used in the genetic screening for aneuploidy, in particular Fluorescence Iin Situ Hybridisation (FISH), Comparative Genomic Hybridisation (CGH) and Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).”

    An Obstetrician and Gyneacologist, and member of Society of Gyneacologist and Obstetrician Society of Nigeria (SOGON), Lagos State Chapter, Dr Adebayo Bamisebi, shed more light on this. “In pregnancy it is possible to screen for aneuploidy by means of amniocentesis where a sample of the amniotic fluid around the baby is removed for FISH (i.e, a diagnostic tool) and karyotyping, and chorionic villus sampling where a small sample of tissue from the placenta is removed for testing. However there are a number of problems linked to such prenatal screening. These techniques are not without risk. Miscarriage can complicate these invasive tests and statistically when this shattering event happens it is far more likely to be a normal pregnancy that is lost than an affected one,”  Bamisebi said.

    They both agreed that while pre-natal screening or Pre-implantation Genetic Screening can detect those pregnancies affected by aneuploidy, PGD goes a step further by testing an embryo for specific inherited abnormalities/disorders.

    According to Dr Tayo Abiara, an assisted reproductive health expert , “pre-implantation Genetic Screening (PGS) offer screening that avoid the transfer of embryos that have common chromosomal abnormalities. Unlike PGD, PGS is not looking for a specific but PGD is a technology used in conjunction with IVF to screen embryos for genetic conditions prior to transfer, so as to remove a cell from a three-day old embryo fertilised in vitro or analyse cells for specific genetic or chromosomal abnormalities.”

    Bamisebi explained that some couples are at risk of having a child with a specific serious genetically inherited disease. Such a disease may be due to an abnormality affecting the genes, chromosomes or tiny structures within the cell called mitochondria. Couples may have become aware of this because: “There is a family history of a genetically inherited disease; you have a child with a genetically inherited disease; you have had terminations of pregnancy for a genetically inherited disease. Until recently, pre-natal testing (amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling) offered the only means of diagnosing serious genetic conditions affecting the baby. When found, the distressing option of having the pregnancy terminated could then be considered.

    “But PGD provides an alternative to prenatal screening as embryos can be tested for any one of over 50 serious inherited disorders. PGD checks the genetic makeup of embryos obtained through IVF so that only unaffected embryos are transferred. Through PGD, couples are able to avoid passing on the condition to their children,” explained Dr Ajayi.

    Nordica’s Clinic Manager, Mrs Tola Ajayi explained that PGD offers a better chance to PGS because, “There are some genetic diseases inherited by children that are life threatening and can only be treated by using stem cells from a close member of the family. PGD takes care of that. PGD involves a multidisciplinary team, that include the clinic’s own reproductive medicine specialists, embryologists trained to carry out the necessary embryo biopsies, clinical genetics specialists, scientists and counsellors.”

    And how is PGS done?  Ajayi explained: “IVF is carried out in the normal way. By day three of the embryo will contain six to eight cells (blastomeres). The embryologist removes one blastomere for chromosome analysis using the FISH screening technique. Clinics will screen five to 10 specific chromosomes of the 24 chromosomes, looking for the commonest chromosome disorders.

    “Embryos that are free from chromosome abnormality can then be transferred. A maximum of two screened embryos can be transferred regardless of the age of the woman. If there are any suitable additional screened embryos these can then be stored for future use by freezing.”

  • About 15m babies are born prematurely annually – Minister

    About 15m babies are born prematurely annually – Minister

    …Nigeria 3rd largest contributor with estimated 871,000
    Globally, about 15 million babies are born prematurely each year, it was learnt Thursday.

    Nigeria is also the 3rd largest contributor to this number with an estimated 871,000 babies born pre-term every year.

    Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Oyewole disclosed this yesterday at the occasion marking the World Prematurity and Pneumonia Day.

    Also, as part of the efforts to save Newborn lives, Federal Ministry of Health launched three policy documents relating to Newborn Health. These are: Nigeria Every Newborn Action Plan, essential Newborn Care training package and National Chlorhexidine Scale up Strategy document.

    Speaking at the occasion, Prof. Oyewole reveals that babies born too soon have a higher risk of death that is thirteen times higher than babies born at term.

    He also disclosed that one of every three newborn deaths is attributable to complications of prematurity, while those who survive may face lifelong disabilities, including learning, visual and hearing problems and their quality of life is greatly affected.

    The minister however said it was not all doom and gloom as recent survey has shown a reduction in under-five mortality rates from 157/1000 lives births in 2008 to 128/1000 in 2013.

    He said: “Globally, about 15 million babies are born prematurely each year, Nigeria being the 3rd largest contributor to this number has an estimated 871,000 babies born preterm every year.
    “Babies born too soon have a higher risk of death that is thirteen times higher than babies born at term. Thus, one of every three newborn deaths is attributable to complications of prematurity. Those who survive may face lifelong disabilities, including learning, visual and hearing problems and their quality of life is greatly affected.

    “In the same vein, globally, Pneumonia follows closely neonatal causes as the next largest cause of under-five mortality and is the leading single disease cause of under-five deaths in Nigeria (WHO-CHERG, 2014). Pneumonia majorly affects the marginalized and the poorest children, accounting for 18% of cause of death in under-fives, about one million deaths among children annually and more than 2500 children per day under the age of five suffering from complications resulting from pneumonia. Evidence has shown that simple practices such as early and exclusive breastfeeding, vaccination, hand washing with soap and water as well as low level of exposure to greenhouse gases are protective against the development of pneumonia.

    “It is however not all doom and gloom. Results from the 2013 NDHS indicate an 18% reduction in under-five mortality rates from 157/1000 live births in 2008 to 128/1000 live births in 2013. Commendable as this may seem, we are mindful that additional efforts are required to further crash the mortality rates and reduce preventable deaths from prematurity and pneumonia to the barest minimum.”

    He also stressed that “the Ministry has not relented in her efforts to reduce preventable deaths of her newborns and children since the last commemoration but has achieved some milestones.”

    To tackle prematurity issues, the minister said ” it is important to promote essential care during childbirth and in the postnatal period for every mother and baby, including antenatal corticosteroids (given to pregnant women at risk of preterm labour to strengthen the babies’ lungs), kangaroo mother care which provide thermal care via skin-to-skin contact for the baby and support breastfeeding (particularly, exclusively, for the first six months of life), and antibiotics to treat newborn infections.”

    The representatives of World Health Organization (WHO), Mr. Andrew Mbewe assured the country of WHO continuous support in the fight to eradicate pneumonia.

    He said already, WHO has helped in building capacity and also supply commodity in communities across the country.

    Mbewe also revealed that the international Organisation have almost more than 1000 community response persons treating children with pneumonia in some states of the country.

    On his part, Representative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Dr. Joseph Monehi, who confirmed the decline in mortality rate in the country, said the agency would be working towards supporting local manufacturer in producing medicine to combat pneumonia in the country.

     

  • Hospital staff arrested for stealing babies for illegal adoption

    Indian police on Sunday said six hospital staff arrested on Friday for stealing babies and young children had been charged for selling them to childless couples in illegal adoption racket.

    Investigating officer, Ravi Channannavar, said in Chennai that the three men and three women, arrested in southern India, were part of a bigger, organised gang involved in trafficking children.

    The suspects worked as nurses and laboratory technicians at five private hospitals and a government-run hospital in Mysuru city.

    Channannavar said that the gang targeted poor couples coming to the hospitals to deliver or get an abortion, in which case they convinced them to deliver the child.

    He said that they sell the children soon after stealing them.

    “In other cases, the gang would steal children from beggars on the streets and sell them for 200,000 rupees ($2,995) in cities like Bengaluru,’’ he said.

    Channannavar said investigations had revealed that the group had sold at least 15 children to different childless couples.

    “We have rescued three children so far and are looking for the others. There may be many more.

    “Statements by the arrested gang members indicate the involvement of a doctor as well,’’ he said.

    Channannavar said the six were arrested following a lengthy investigation triggered in April when police received a complaint from a woman who said her two-year-old son had been snatched off the street.

    The officer confirmed that crime data released by government in August showed more than 40 per cent of human trafficking cases in 2015 involved children bought, sold and exploited as modern day slaves.

    Paul Sundar, Singh of non-profit Karunalaya, which runs a centre for street children in Chennai, described the case as one of the few that had come to light.

    He stressed that there were many more unreported cases.

    Sundar described stealing children as a big organised crime that police were still struggling to clamp down on across the country.

    He pointed out that cases of young children stolen from the pavements of Chennai city earlier the year were still unsolved. (Reuters/NAN)

  • NAPTIP condemns babies’, organs harvesting

    NAPTIP condemns babies’, organs harvesting

    The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), yesterday cautioned Nigerians against harvesting babies’ organs for financial and other purposes.

    NAPTIP’s zonal Commander, Joseph Famakin, made the plea in Lagos, when the representative of the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) paid him a visit.

    Famakin condemned the spate of babies and human organs harvesting in the country, adding that NAPTIP would prosecute anyone caught in the criminal act.

    He said: “There is a new ugly trend in this country today and that is the harvesting of babies. We want those who indulge in this inhuman act to desist. Our investigations have revealed that babies are harvested from young pregnant girls and sold to those looking for them.

    “We are also aware of the situation where human organs are harvested for money or for whatever purposes and this is of utmost concern to NAPTIP. Nigerians should know that there is a new human trafficking law that has given more power to NAPTIP on all incidences of human trafficking.”

     

  • Haven for premature babies

    Haven for premature babies

    In one month, 45 premature babies have been saved in a Bida, Niger State hospital, reports JUSTINA ASISHANA

    THANKS to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Bida, Niger State, no fewer than 45 premature babies are no longer on the verge of death. In one month, doctors at the hospital saved that many premature newborns from dying.

    The labour room is usually a tense place. Expectant mothers hope for safe delivery and look forward to carrying their bundle of joy. Sometimes they end up with a tiny baby who must be kept in an incubator to grow to maturity. In some cases, those premature babies die before they make it to the icubator.

    At the FMC, Bida, there have been no such heartbreaks for 45 mothers. In the past one month, they were successfully delivered at the hospital and are doing well in their incubators, the Medical Director of the facility Dr. Mohammad Usman Aminu said.

    Aminu said four of the premature babies died due to complications resulting from their mothers not seeking medical care on time and those whose babies were brought in very critical conditions from other hospitals. He expressed confidence that the neonatal ward in the hospital is capable of preventing the death of premature babies.

    The Medical Director also disclosed that over 150 premature babies have been saved from January to June.

    He said the hospital has state of the art facilities to save the lives of premature babies, adding that the centre has incubators that can  accommodate up to 25 premature babies.

    Aminu said that there is adequate oxygen in the neonatal intensive care unit to address any emergency that may arise from the birth of babies who weigh less than 1kg.

    The Medical Director also disclosed that plans have been concluded for the installation of a computerised thermography (CT) scan machine to ease procedures for operations of patients and other related illnesses, adding that three consultants on radiology are already in place for the operation of the machine.

    He said that the CT scan machine along with its installation and training of workers as well configuration of the room would gulp N152.5 million.

    The Medical Director reiterated that all the facilities and systems in the center are in good working condition adding there are no high rate of neonatal and infant mortality debunking a social media report purportedly said to be written by one of its doctors that the system in Federal Medical centre have worsened in the last two weeks leading to high rate of death cases.

    He stated that though there may have been a drop in power supply in Bida, the medical centre runs its activities on alternate power supply using its generator contrary to the claims by the doctor that doctors bring along small generators to light up certain parts of the hospital.

    “The management of Federal Medical Centre Bida is up and doing and the facilities are working perfectly well. We produce our own water, we have an oxygen plant and the centre have never lacked oxygen. Despite the problem of power supply, we have gone extra miles to provide our clientele the best services.”

    The parents of those saved babies are unlikely to forget the feat at the medical centre.

  • ‘How to keep babies from dying’

    ‘How to keep babies from dying’

    With a health survey report that 854,000 of over 7million babies born yearly before the age of five, a group, The Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PACFaH) is mounting a campaign to reverse this grim trend. ABDULGAFAR ALABELEWE reports 

    The news is not cheery. There are 7.028 million live births in the country yearly, according to the Nigeria Demographic Health Survey (NDHS), but 854,000 of the babies born do not live to celebrate their fifth birthday.

    The good thing is that something is being done about it. The Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PACFaH) has launched a campaign to reverse the trend. The group has a four-point plan: sensitise people on good nutrition for mother and child, family planning, routine immunisation, and comprehensive management of child killer-diseases. PACFaH said if you take care of these areas, you will keep more children from dying before their fifth birthday.

    Speaking at an event in Kaduna to mark this year’s anniversary of the Day of the African Child, Senior Programme Manager from Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), David E. O Akpotor said pneumonia and diarrhoea account for 14% and 9% of the under-five mortality rate among Nigerian children. This means that no fewer than 400,000 children die annually from pneumonia and diarrhoea.

    Akpotor said, “The major reason for these preventable deaths is poor access to healthcare, particularly in rural areas. This problem can be effectively addressed by ensuring availability of recommended essential drugs up to the community level.

    “There is also need for improved healthcare seeking behaviour amongst parents and caregivers and appropriate referral to healthcare facilities.”

    Speaking on family planning, Programme Manager, Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria (HERFON), Dr. Hassana Adamu re-sounded the alarm note, saying Nigeria has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world

    He added, saying that one woman out of every 29 Nigerians faces a lifetime risk of death during childbirth.

    “Family planning has, however, been universally recognised as one of the key pillars and approaches towards achieving safe motherhood and survival of the child directly and indirectly. It is only a healthy mother that can provide and protect the child.

    “Due to its direct positive impacts on the health of the family and consequently the economy of a nation as a whole, meeting the unmet need for family planning can help Nigeria significantly reduce maternal and child mortality.

    “Providing family planning or child spacing will avert at least 31,000 maternal deaths, with over 700,000 mothers prevented from injuries or long-term complications due to childbirth.

    Similarly, Malam Isah Gidado, a Programme Officer from Community Health Research Initiative (CHR), said child killer diseases such as Tuberculosis, Tetanus, Diphtheria, Meningitis, Pneumonia, Measles and Polio constitute a huge burden on Nigeria, but can be tamed with routine immunisation.

    He pointed out that routine immunisation is confronted by several challenges such as imminent shortage of funding for vaccines, inadequate budget as well as delay and piecemeal release of funds

    Backing his claims, Malam Gidado said, “We appreciate the Federal Government for the allocation of N12.6 Billion for immunisation covering Polio campaign and immunisation in the 2016 appropriated act, but the amount is too minimal to carry out the project.”

    He said, not less than N40billion is required to carry out the assignment.

    In the area of nutrition, as presented by Mr. Sunday Okonkwo who represented Civil Society Scaling up Nutrition in Nigeria, with about 11 million stunted children, Nigeria accounts for the highest burden of malnutrition globally.

    In his words, “Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) Results of 2013, reported at the National level shows; prevalence of Stunting 37% underweight 29% and wasting 18% in Children under five years old.

    “In Kaduna State, Stunting is at 56.6%, underweight 57.6% and wasting 42% in children under five years old. This means Kaduna State with 56.6% stunting has the third highest number of stunted children under-5 years of age in Nigeria after Kebbi 61% and Katsina and Jigawa with 59% respectively.” He said.

    He however said, with budget line in place for nutrition in the Kaduna State 2016 budget and the school feeding programme, the status of Kaduna will soon be reversed.

    Recommending solutions to the challenges leading to death of almost a million Nigerian child annually, Programme Manager of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) Chioma Kanu stressed the need for budget lines and release of funds for Nutrition, Immunisation, Management of Child Killer Diseases and Family Planning.

    According to Kanu who spoke to reporters on the way out, the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Health, has developed the Health Sector Component on National Food and Nutrition Policy, the document, if adopted and fully implemented, at the state and local government area levels, will by 2019 reduce stunting by 20%, reduce childhood wasting by 15% and increase exclusive breast feeding in the first six months by 50%.

    “We urge governments at the national and state levels to adopt the National Strategic Plan of Action (NSPAN) with specific focus on Maternal and Child Nutrition component of the plan, create specific budget line on nutrition across relevant institutions, encourage exclusive breast-feeding, adopt an effective implementation of the costed NSPAN at all levels to combat endemic malnutrition in the country,” she said.

    They equally urged governments at all levels on provision of appreciable access to family planning services through adequate budget provision, fulfilled government’s commitment at London summit to family planning related issues, as well as massive awareness creation on the appropriate compliance to the required medical procedures in administering family planning services to secure individuals’ confidence and acceptance.

    “Government must also prompt adoption and implementation of the National Blue Print on Family Planning (Scale-up Plan 2014–2018) and the Costed Implementation Plans to reflect the local context to promote effective implementation across the Country.”

    “As we mark the Day of the African Child today we urge the Government of Nigeria and relevant Stakeholders to place high premium on the adequate management of the aforementioned preventable and treatable childhood killer diseases.

    “Our specific advocacy requests are: The adoption and listing of Amoxicillin DT as the First Line Drug for the Management of Childhood Pneumonia in the National Standard Treatment Guidelines and the National Essential Medicines List;

    “States’ Ministry of Health to invest in and scale up the implementation of the National Guideline on Integrated Community Case Management (iCCM) of Childhood illness for the reduction of under-5 mortality, as directed by the 58th National Council of Health Meeting held in Sokoto in March 2016, as well as increase public awareness and acceptance of the use of Zinc-LO-ORS Co-pack as the First Line Drug in the Management of Childhood Diarrhoea.

    The creation of a  specific budget line for the procurement of these Essential Drugs (Amoxicillin DT and Zn-LO-ORS) that have been shown to reduce Pneumonia and Diarrhoea Deaths Globally and Nationally. And timely release and judicious use of funds allocated for the procurement of these Essential Medicines as captured in the budget.

     

  • ‘Effective healthcare crucial to survival of mothers, babies’

    A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), MamaYe, has called for effective healthcare planning to save the lives of mothers and babies.

    Its country director Dr Tunde Segun called for evidence-based plan of action to ensure good health for mothers and their babies in Nigeria and Africa.

    Speaking during a  training organised by MamaYe on investigative reporting of maternal newborn health (MNH) for reporters in Kadunna, Dr Segun said the public and private sector should put maternal and newborns’ health on the spotlight.

    He said maternal and newborn health (MNH) scorecards can be used to influence health strategies and planning during health sector review meetings.

    For him, budgetary allocation to health should be increased to strengthen mother and newborn health.

    “However, the little allocated should be well accounted for and properly utilised,” Segun said.

    He said there was need for the strengthening of maternal death reviews (MDRs), in facilities or in communities focused on action-oriented responses.

    Segun said promoting transparency through publicly accessible mother and newborn health (MNH) evidence, news, success stories, government commitments is a measure for knowing the state of mother and baby.

    He said  accountability mechanisms should be strengthened, that is, for broader inclusiveness, at national and sub-national levels to track progress and improve quality of care.

    He said: “Evidence for action (E4A) advocacy and accountability was delivered through a campaign known as MamaYe, through which E4A will build and join together a coalition of supporters to achieve a shared goal of saving the lives of mothers and babies in Nigeria and regionally”.

    The campaign, he said, was a public call to action encouraging everyone to play their role in the survival of mothers and babies.

    The focus, he said, should be on survival than mortality, adding that people’s expectations should be raised on the issue.

    Besides, evidence should be used to celebrate success, spur action and promote accountability.

    He said it was possible to protect the life of mother and baby.

    Segun said more women and newborns now survive childbirth than ever because they are accessing treatment at safe facilities, which deliver higher quality of care due to adequate and equitably distributed human resources, drugs, supplies and equipment.

  • The sad cost of making babies

    Nigeria is one of the leading countries in terms of maternal deaths. YETUNDE OLADEINDE takes a look at the causes, challenges experienced by women and how it can be reduced.

    RAISING a family is usually the major priority for young people. The cost of making babies, interestingly, is alarming in a depressed economy where there is high unemployment rate, underemployment, as well as living with a wage that actually does not take one home.

    Babies, however, are a great treasure in this part of the world and so provision must be made to usher them into our world. The hospital list and the list of baby things are a nightmare for many. That is not all. A number of our pregnant women are malnourished, cannot afford to register at hospitals especially during the first trimester when the child is going through a very vital stage. Worse still are the problems associated with poor facilities, inadequate and inexperienced personnel.

    In the process, lives are lost while others simply live with consequences that haunt them for life. For thirty-two-year-old Uche Onuoha, the worst day in his life was the day his wife fell into labour a few minutes after midnight.  “I was already sleeping in bed when she woke me up and told me how she was feeling. First, it took me time to find the vigilante man to open the gate for us. After that, I also had to go and bang the gates in the neighbourhood to take us to the hospital. By the time the okadaman arrived, my wife was in great pains.”

    Luckily, the hospital was not too far away and the medical team attended to her as soon we got there. “You can imagine what would have happened if the hospital was far away or if they didn’t have capable hands to attend to us.”

    Sadly, Sani Kazeem takes you into his wife’s experience in labour and how they survived what would have been a catastrophe. “My first son is the best thing in my life. Each time I look at him, I remember the ordeal that my wife went through during labour. Then we were living in a village in Nasarawa and I had to take her to a traditional birth attendant because the public health centre there was very far away.”

    Kazeem continues his story: “She was in labour for over four hours and I kept on walking up and down as I heard her screaming. At a point, I heard that the baby’s head was already coming out.” Relief! Kazeem then thought that the trauma was over, but, sadly, that was not to be. “Unfortunately, the woman came out and said that there were some complications and I saw the baby’s head hanging in between her legs. The only option was to take her to the public health centre which was quite far away.”

    Devastated! Kazeem ran helter-skelter looking for help in the community. “There was no vehicle in sight and the only option was to carry her to the place with a wheel barrow. She cried and screamed all the way and I became very confused myself. Luckily, the mother and child survived the ordeal because Allah was with us.”

    However, Remilekun Ariyo was not so lucky. The school teacher had gone to a private hospital where she was wrongly diagnosed as having fibroid. Expectedly, her condition worsened and she was referred to Ayinke House at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital where it was discovered that a dead baby had been in her womb for about a week. Unfortunately, the woman died.

    Just when you think women in this state are fragile and should be treated like eggs, you hear tales of women beaten to a state of coma. Comfort Bassey tells you her experience and the trauma she had to cope with in the process. “He used to beat me in my pregnant state. On a particular day, he broke a bottle and inflicted an injury on me. He also removed a lantern glass, threw it at me and it got broken all over me. His stepbrother who was living with us at that time left the house in anger. The man never came back to our house again,” she recalls in tears.

    She adds that “When the pregnancy was seven months, he started again and I ran to his cousin’s place. They warned him but he didn’t listen to them. The baby girl finally came through caesarean section. In spite of all this, my husband was always kicking me at the very spot where I had the stitches. “Immediately after the operation, I started coughing and my legs were swelling up. So they had to do blood transfusion for me at St. Luke’s General Hospital in Uyo.”

    Sadly,  recent statistics  on maternal mortality by the World Health Organisation (WHO) reveal that at least 330,000 women died during child birth worldwide in 2015.

    The figure released by Global Health Observatory (GHO) of the WHO lamented that every day in 2015, at least 830 women died due to complications of pregnancy and child birth.

    “Almost all of these deaths occurred in low-resource settings, and most could have been prevented. The primary causes of death are haemorrhage, hypertension, infections, and indirect causes, mostly due to interaction between pre-existing medical conditions and pregnancy.

    It adds: “Of the 830 daily maternal deaths, 550 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa and 180 in Southern Asia, compared to five in developed countries. The risk of a woman in a developing country dying from a maternal-related cause during her lifetime is about 33 times higher compared to a woman living in a developed country”.

    Maternal mortality is a health indicator that shows very wide gaps between rich and poor, urban and rural areas, both between countries and within them.

    The maternal mortality trend, according to the report, however, shows that the number of women dying due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth has decreased by 43% from an estimated 532,000 in 1990 to 303,000 in 2015.

    “The progress is notable, but the annual rate of decline is less than half of what is needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of reducing the maternal mortality ratio by 75% between 1990 and 2015, which would require an annual decline of 5.5%.

    “The 44% decline since 1990 translates into an average annual decline of just 2.3%. Between 1990 and 2000, the global maternal mortality ratio decreased by 1.2% per year, while from 2000 to 2015 progress accelerated to a 3.0% decline per year,” the report revealed.

    The report indicated that Sierra Leone had the highest maternal mortality rate in the world in 2015 with 1,360 women dying, while Central Africa Republic came second with 882 dying during child birth and Chad coming third with 856 maternal deaths.

    So where does Nigeria stand in all this? The revelation here showed that Nigerian came fourth in the world with 814 maternal deaths, with South Sudan ranking fifth with 789 maternal deaths. Others are Somalia, 732, Liberia, 725, Burundi, 712, Gambia, 706, among others.

    Finland, Greece and Iceland have the least maternal death worldwide in 2015 with just three women dying in each of the countries during child birth. Belarus, Austria, Czech Republic, Kuwait, Italy and Sweden all had four cases of maternal death in 2015.

  • Man charged with stealing beds for babies

    Man charged with stealing beds for babies

    The police have accused a 22-year-old man, Umoru Haruna, of stealing 13 cribs worth N200, 000 from a warehouse in Lagos Island.

    Haruna was arraigned Monday before a Tinubu Magistrates’ Court in Lagos on a two-count charge of breaking and entry, and theft.

    Prosecuting Inspector Philip Osijale told the court that the defendant committed the offences at about 2:00 pm on January 4, at No. 39 Oronyimi Street, Lagos Island.

    He alleged that the defendant, of no fixed address and occupation, unlawfully broke into a warehouse belonging to one Obi Obed, and stole the cribs.

    “The defendant was caught in possession of two of the beds by a sales boy working for the complainants. The boy raised the alarm and the defendant was apprehended,” the prosecutor added.
    He said that the offences contravene Sections 285, 305 (b) and 306 (1) of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2011.

    The defendant denied both charges and Presiding Magistrate, Mr. L.A. Owolabi, granted him bail in the sum of N50,000 with two sureties in the like sum.
    The case was adjourned till February 22.