BY DORCAS EDET
According to the World Health Organisation, maternal health refers to the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period. It is expected that each of these stages would be a positive experience so as to ensure that both mother and child are in optimum health at the end of the day. To achieve this, amongst other things, mothers need to be able to access quality health services rendered by health professionals during the stages involved in motherhood.

Wife of the Senate President, Mrs. Toyin Saraki, says continuous investment in health care infrastructure is one of the ways by which the government can tackle the high rate of maternal and newborn mortality in the country.
 
She, however, added that the task could not be left to the government alone, stressing that private partnership was also very key.
 

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a Canadian government agency , says it is contributing 2.6m Canadian dollars ($1.9m) to the funding of a maternal and child health programme in Nigeria and in five other West African countries – Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Benin and Burkina Faso.
 
Nigeria currently has a high incidence of maternal mortality. According to the United Nations ‎Population Fund, Nigeria is responsible for 10 percent of the global maternal mortality burden. That is, about 111 women die during child birth in the country.