ARFH Canvasses New Policy On Maternal Deaths

The President, Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH), Prof. Oladapo Ladipo, has urged obstetricians to develop a workable policy to combat maternal death.

He said this in Abuja last week, at the opening of a two-day technical workshop on Maternal Death Review (MDR).

The workshop was organised by the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON) and the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) to brain storm on maternal death and its causes.

Ladipo said that maternal health and survival had not improved much since the 2008 National Demographic Health Survey as shown by a recent survey.

He said the existing improvement was due to the commitment of the government through the creation of policies and commended the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency for deploying some 4,000 midwives to 1,000 centres across the country.

“We need to do more in terms of mentoring and setting an example for up and coming doctors,” he said.

Ladipo said although a lot had been achieved in reducing maternal mortality, the implementation of policies had been the main challenge.

He said cultural problems of women risking their lives to please their husbands against doctors recommendation also remains a challenge.

“We see women having children in spite of poverty and in very risky situations; there is a need to counsel not just these women, but also their husbands and families.

“They are unaware of the dangers of multiple pregnancies and if we do nothing, no one will and our women will continue to die.

“There is no developed country or country on the fast track that has not moderated population growth.

“The fact is that family planning can improve the maternal mortality rate in a short time by a third.”

Ladipo added that many people criticised the population policies in China and India but noted that without those policies the populations of both countries would have been out of control.

“There is nothing wrong with a national maternity law but in Nigeria religion and tradition are obstacles to population control,” he said.

He noted that countries where Christianity and Islam originated from did not have such outrageous population growth.

Ladipo commended the SOGON’s plan to deploy obstetricians to certain states in order to do volunteer work on weekends and during their free time.

He said that this was not a new practice, adding that in the early 1980s, doctors volunteered their services and received only accommodation and food as payment.

He said such work was beneficial to the pregnant women and to the obstetricians who sharpened their skills.

Ladipo said that in England, maternal death was so low that their researchers focused mainly on near deaths of mothers and babies.