A report by the World Health Organization (WHO) has ranked Nigeria as the country with the second highest number of maternal, neonatal and child deaths worldwide.
The report made public on Tuesday, May 9, shows Nigeria trailing India as the two leading nations where mothers and their babies are most likely to die.
THE federal government has disclosed that over 2 million girls were at risk of genital mutilation in the country, tasking Nigerians to rose against the practice it described as criminal.
This came as the government said it saved over 3,700 girls from undergoing the practice in five states of Ebonyi,Imo,Oyo,Ekiti and Osun through vigorous awareness campaign it launched in partnership with the United Nations in the affected states.
The Health4All Media Initiative (HAMI) on Wednesday described the death of one of its members, Dominic Eze Uzu, 60, as “shocking” and “saddened”!
His death, according to a statement by the Secretary of the group, Sola Ojo, came at a time the HAMI was trying to intensify maternal and newborn reportage in Nigeria with a focus on rural communities in Kaduna State.
HAMI is a group of journalists cut across print, electronic and new media working on health as one of the key component of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Nigeria is working towards.
In 2016, Mrs Mummy Nkoronye was full on joy and expectations as she shopped for baby items and made plans on how to travel to the village in December to present her “new’’ baby, as it is customary, to her mother in-law.
But when she went into labour at a health facility in the Ikorodu area of Lagos, no one expected that it would be a tough one.
That was her fourth journey to the labour room; the labour was prolonged and she wasn’t advised to take another alternative or intervention.
In recent times, the advocacy for family planning has become crucial as demand for reproductive, and population reduction, economic, health care grows.
There is no doubt anymore that the benefits of family planning are numerous and if properly executed will go a long way in enabling countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
When you hear of #TakwaBay what comes to mind is beautiful ocean, beach, boat rides but the reality is different when we got to the community. According to Baale of #TakwaBayover 250,000 people lives in this community, men, women and children. But #Takwabaycommunity does not have a nepa/phcn Poll not to talk of having electricity since they started leaving there thousands of years ago. This simply means all the benefits of electricity has never been enjoyed in this community. Women deliver their babies in darkness.
With a population of over 180 million people in the midst of scarce resource, there are increasing calls for Nigeria to consider family planning so as to effectively control the number of birth.
Of course there are series of awareness campaigns by government and health related non-governmental organisation aimed at taking the message of effective family planning (FP) across homes in towns and villages.
But in spite of series of awareness programmes on family planning in the country, the uptake remains very low.
The price of abortion in Nigeria ranges from N250 to a woman’s life.
Although they are officially sold in Nigeria for the prevention and treatment of post-delivery bleeding, abortion drugs are increasingly getting popular and their potential implications are far-reaching, pitching the country’s hard stance on abortion against the stark reality doctors and healthcare providers daily contend with at their clinics.
Having lost two children to avoidable ailments at birth, Maria escaped from her rural community to Lagos to seek a better delivery opportunity for her child. At 32, Maria cannot afford to feed three times a day let alone, her baby. With her family’s income below N1,000 a day, their feeding and paying rent is arduous. Paying a medical bill they consider outrageous is a lot more difficult. This leaves Maria at the mercy of the hospital, waiting to be sent off when the hospital management tires.
Maria’s grimy case is not peculiar.
Ever wondered how a personal tragedy thaws into a life time commitment? Ask Toyin Saraki. At age 27, the former Kwara State first lady had a life-changing experience which changed her outlook on philanthropy.
