Posted by From TONY ICHEKU, Maiduguri on
More Nigerian women are dying of causes related to child-bearing, says World Health Organisation (WHO) report.
More Nigerian women are dying of causes related to child-bearing, says World Health Organisation (WHO) report.
Alarmed by government's indifference, a reproductive rights activist says that all women in the country should embargo child-bearing till the issue is tackled head-on. Does it seem far-fetched?
Mrs Ejiro Otive-Igbuzor, told Daily Sun that it is only a matter for woman to stop child bearing if government fails to tackle the worsening issue of maternal mortality.
Otive-Igbuzor, country director of the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA), a non-governmental organization, contends that 'government should provide for women free and comprehensive pre-natal, delivery, and post-natal services. Child bearing is a service to humanity, why use women like a machine and still make them pay for it? If government refuses to do something fast, women may be mobilized to go on strike and embargo child-bearing. Yes, it is possible. Women can stop getting pregnant"
She argues that though maternal mortality is avoidable, it may become a national emergency, owing to its worsening incidence.
Maternal mortality, according to World Health Organisation (WHO), is 'death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of a termination of a pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but from accidental and incidental causes."
According to reports, Nigeria contributes 1.7 per cent of world population, but it accounts for 10 per cent of maternal deaths annually, which translates roughly to one woman dying every 10-15 minutes. Beginning from1987, maternal mortality ratio has worsened, growing from 600 maternal deaths in every 100,000 live births to 1,000/100,000 in 2000 to 1,500/100,000 as at 2003.
A graduate of Medical Micro-biologist, Otive-Igbuzor formerly worked at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Yaba, Lagos before entering the world of women rights in 1991.
Four years ago, she expanded her focus by embarking on the campaign for reduction of maternal mortality.
She identifies poverty as a key issue in the fight against maternal mortality, especially in the North-East. The activist captures the general problem faced by the campaign with one word:
'Deaf ears. Politicians hear us and think it does not concern them, but gradually we are making progress."
Otive-Igbuzor laments that 'women are dying in pregnancy and child-birth because they are poor, uneducated, lack access to factual information, affordable healthcare services, including ante-natal care and skilled attendants, as well as education. Just like what obtains in most parts of Nigeria , women of the North-East are subjected to harmful traditional practices. All of these are preventable causes."
As politicians mobilize for 2007 elections, Otive-Igbuzor is equally mobilizing like-minded women to 'articulate key demands and action points towards placing maternal and neonatal mortality reduction on the national agenda for the 2007 elections and its emergent civilian government."
She recently led other NGOs to Maiduguri for a North-East Women's Summit on Elections. The summit titled 'Repositioning Maternal Mortality Reduction as an Election Demand", hopes to mobilize women to actively and meaningfully participate in the 2007 elections and also strategise how to hold elected officers accountable for maternal health and related demands.
Challenged that such efforts seem like a drop of water, she replies that with over 500 women present, it is one of the biggest gathering of women from the North-East. 'This is a major summit and the women have set their agenda, when the politicians come they will present it to them as a charter in exchange for their votes. One year later, these politicians elected to offices will be called to account. If they have done nothing about the charter they endorsed, they will be penalized. Remember the 1999 Constitution has provision for recall, we can begin the recall of such officials who have done nothing about our demands.
'Each of the 500 women here have a constituency, from here, they carry the message to their respective constituencies down to the grassroots," she said.
She elaborates further that her NGO is facilitating the formation of 100 women groups in each state of the North-East to campaign and enlighten communities on maternal mortality reduction.
'The 100 women group model is a coalition building strategy that galvanizes women around a common issue, facilitates the formation of proactive coalitions of women groups and community based organization," she said the model involves two representatives from 50 groups coming together to form a body of 100 issue-focused women.
According to her, maternal mortality could be reduced through rehabilitation of medical facilities, construction of access roads from rural to urban centres or to places where medical facilities can be accessed.
More medical facilities could also be built to make them nearer to women, as well as training more skilled bed attendants.
She equally wants government and elected officials to be in the front of drive towards reduction of traditional/cultural harmful practices, such as early marriage, denial of education for the girl-child and female genital mutilation (FGM).
The activist argued that proper attention would be given maternal mortality if it is treated as governance issue, not just as a health issue.
She further wants respected community and opinion leaders to join the enlightenment campaign against some traditional practices which has been legitimized by the toga of religion.
'Some of this so-called religious practices are really misrepresentations. They are not actually true as their origins cannot be traced from the holy books," she said.
What progress has been made in the campaign? She replies that in 2006 CEDPA held a national consultative forum on maternal mortality, an event held in collaboration with some committees of the National Assembly, female and male legislators, politicians and Federal Ministry of Health.
'It was at this forum that we agreed on a shift in focus, that maternal mortality, girl-child education are governance issues," she affirmed.