In its bid to achieve greater result in its advocacy towards positive health behaviours in Ebonyi State, the Breakthrough Action-Nigeria has set up a 35-man Committee to drive its health programmes in the hinterlands. The inauguration was part of its two-day Social and Behaviour Change Advocacy Orientation and Work plan Development Workshop held last week at the Osborne La Palm hotel, Abakaliki The even was organised in collaboration with the office of the wife of the Governor of Ebonyi State.

The Nigeria Health Watch, a non-profit organisation, says community Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response (MPDSR) will help to reduce maternal deaths rate in the country.
Mrs Vivianne Ihekweazu, Managing Director, Nigeria Health Watch, made the assertion in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Saturday.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says maternal mortality or death is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days after the delivery or termination of a pregnancy.

In Nigeria today, it’s alarming the rate at which women die at childbirth, especially in rural areas. It has been likened to an airplane crashing daily. The urgency of fighting this national embarrassment as opposed to sweeping it under the carpet cannot be over emphasised. Generally, according to World Health Organisation (WHO), ‘Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia accounted for approximately 86 percent (254 000) of the estimated global maternal deaths in 2017.

Recent indications in the reproductive health sector shows that Nigeria’s marginal progress towards achieving its 2023 Contraceptive Prevalence Rate target in family planning is threatened.
This fear is coming on the heels of the disruptions in family planning services by the COVID-19 pandemic following the lockdown and most recently, the agitation of the Nigerian youth to end a unit of the police force, Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).