Keeping women safe while giving birth, the way forward

By Abiemwense Moru

Health Watch with support from MSD for Mothers organised a stakeholders meeting in Abuja on Evidence for Change: Learning and Recommendations for Quality Maternal Care.

The different stakeholders discussed experiences and made recommendations on achieving quality maternal health care.

In an experience-sharing session, Zara Zarma, a Village Health Worker with Girl Child Concerns (GCC), shared her experiences in providing health education, support and referral services for women in her community.

Zarma, who appreciated GCC for training her through MSD for mothers on maternal care, said it had not been easy moving from house to house sensitising pregnant women to always seek medical attention during pregnancy.

She said “now that I have been trained, I see the need for pregnant women to seek help from the hospitals because they do not have to die at childbirth. .

“People do not really see the need as they prefer to do it the local way, which may lead to the women losing their lives.

“I move from house to house to talk to women to access health facilities for their medical attention to save their lives and the lives of their babies.”

Iyadunni Olubode, Nigeria Director, MSD for Mothers, in her opening remark at the meeting, said  no woman should die in childbirth.

“We believe the voice of Nigerian women is pivotal.”

She emphasised that understanding maternal health challenges is important in finding solutions to them.

Olubode maintained that more women must be reached across the country to address their challenges together.

“When we understand the challenges, we review them together and then know what works,’’ she said.

Also, Mrs Vivianne Ihekweazu, the Managing Director, Nigeria Health Watch, thanked collaborators and MSD for Mothers for the work and support and requested for a call to action on maternal quality healthcare.

She said “Nigeria Health Watch has been working on maternal health advocacy and communications programme in the past 18 months to spotlight the importance of quality care in maternal health in Nigeria through MSD for Mothers funded projects.

“So over the period, we have interacted with stakeholders to spotlight insights and evidence from MSD for Mothers collaborators programmes.

“The aim is to spotlight interventions that will enable Nigeria to achieve the SDG target of a global Maternal Ratio of fewer than 70 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030.’’

The Ending Preventable Maternal Mortality (EPMM) programme’s target of a reduction of Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) by all countries to at least two-thirds of their 2010 baseline levels is reliant upon the provision of available, accessible, acceptable, quality service in an enabling environment that respects human rights principles.

“The World Health Organisation (WHO) Quality, Equity and Dignity (“QED”) project to improve Quality of Communication (QoC) for mothers and newborns in health facilities is one strategy to achieve the SDG targets.

“Nigeria is one of nine first wave countries implementing Quality of Communication (QoC) which aims to halve hospital-based maternal and newborn deaths in five years.’’ (NANFeatures)