NIMSA Advises FG On Maternal Health

Nigerian Medical Students Association (NIMSA) has advised the Federal Government to take urgent steps to identify and redress the various laws that impact negatively on women’s reproductive health and rights.
The advice was contained in a communique issued in Abuja by NIMSA after a national workshop on the “state of Women‘s Health and Reproductive Rights in Nigeria”.
The communique was signed by NIMSA National President, Ezie Patrick and the National Secretary, Evarest Okwara.
The students noted the contribution of unsafe abortion to high Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) and therefore urged the government, religious leaders and traditional rulers to work together to help salvage the situation”.
NIMSA further said that the government and the National Assembly in collaboration with reproductive health experts should revisit the CEDA W bill with a view to domesticating it to suit health and reproductive rights of women in Nigeria.
The group called on government to more youth and NGO based advocacy programnes that would help empower women on their health and reproductive rights.
They said that government should expand the scope of sex education to include topics on reproductive health and rights of women and to involve youths in the formulation of policies that affect the reproductive health and rights of women.
“Government should organize and conduct research on MMR in order to come up with current national data on the number of women who die from pregnancy related cases and the efforts of government to reduce MMR in Nigeria,” the communique said.
The students noted the deplorable state of the health and reproductive rights of women in Nigeria, adding that a lot was needed to reduce MMR.
They said that it was worrisome that a 2006 WHO statistics showed that Nigeria recorded 800 maternal deaths per 100,000, adding that the figure placed the nation as one country with the worst MMR.