‘How To Reduce Maternal Mortality’

The Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike has expressed worries with the high rate of child and maternal mortality in the country, saying that nursing mothers and pregnant women should actively participate in efforts to reduce it.
Flagging off the first round of maternal newborn child health week, last Wednesday, at the Primary Health Centre, Ozuoba, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state, Wike pleaded with pregnant women and nursing mothers to visit health centres near them for immunisation.
The governor, who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Dr. Ipalibo Harry Banigo, said government will continue to fund health programmes to eliminate unnecessary deaths among women and children, adding that his administration had recruited more health workers for the health centres and hospitals in the state.
Earlier, Chief of Field Office, UNICEF, Rivers Field Office, Mr. Welbroad Ngambi said infant and maternal mortality rates were still very high in the country, adding that only about 65 per cent of pregnant women participate in anti-natal care.
Ngambi noted that the foregoing simply implied that only about 50 per cent have their babies in the hospitals.
In their separate remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Mrs Wali Caroline, and the Rivers State Coordinator, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Imoh Ukpong, stressed the significance of the health week.
In his sensitisation address, the Director, Community Health Services, Rivers State Primary Healthcare Management Board (RSPHCMB), Dr. Isaac Opurum pleaded with women to visit health centres to be vaccinated against tetanus, adding that children of age five and below will also be given Vitamin A to protect them from blindness.