The delivery of a healthy baby, coupled with a healthy post delivery period in a positive environment, is the desire of every family – this is because it supports the physical and emotional needs of the mother, the baby and the family at large.

It is also a fact that pregnancy and childbirth have great effect on the health of women and their families. The death of a woman during pregnancy, at delivery, or soon after delivery is a tragedy for her family and the society as a whole.

Pregnant women waiting for antenatalStatistics show that maternal death related outcomes are sometimes influenced by factors such as race, ethnicity, age and income. When individuals are helpless and situation goes beyond the capacity of the family, the citizens look up to the government who are expected to be responsive and fulfill their obligations.

In recognition of the role of the government in saving women and children lives, the State Team Leader of Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI) in Kaduna, Malam Kabir Abdullahi seeks efforts aimed at making quality maternal health care accessible to women in the state.

According to him, complications during pregnancy and childbirth is the leading cause of the death and disability among women in developing countries, especially Nigeria.

Mallam Abdullahi who noted that maternal mortality is on the high side in Kaduna state compared to other states, appealed to the State Government to help save the lives of pregnant women by allocating and releasing funds around safe motherhood commodities and services.

“The primary thing for us is to reduce maternal mortality by increasing contraceptive prevalent rate and for us to increase contraceptive prevalence rate, we have to ensure that every person understands the significance and values of contraception”. He said.

Speaking in the same vein, Hajiya Hauwa Saulawa of Advocacy Nigeria said a woman’s body, during pregnancy, goes through hormonal changes, which are sometimes debilitating and called for provision of emergency services to cater for the need of such women should the need arise

Hauwa stated that Kaduna State Government need to expend more energy on enlightening women on importance of antenatal clinics and hospital deliveries. "Health care providers, especially at the rural areas must help sensitize women as they approach pregnancy and for any potential problems encountered during pregnancy till childbirth delivery”. She said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Lydia Umar of Gender Awareness Trust, has called on pregnant women to patronize antenatal clinics for continuous monitoring of their pregnancies by health experts.

Written by: BY MAGRET MAINA (Kaduna)