An American based Nigerian-born Consultant of Family Medicine and Obstetrics, Dr. Omoniyi Yakubu Adebisi has urged policy makers in the country to pay attention to the issues of maternal mortality in Nigeria and take necessary steps that will curb the menace so as to avert preventable deaths of pregnant women during childbirth.
Adebisi who is also the coordinator of a nongovernmental organization under the auspices of Save Nigerian Mothers Initiatives (SANMINIT) said the alarming rate of maternal morality in Nigeria is worrismome and requires urgent solutions.
Speaking at a free capacity building training organized by SANMINIT for doctors and other maternity care providers in Osun State as part of strategies to curtail maternal and neonatal mortality in Nigeria, Adebisi said the training was designed to strengthen the capacity of the doctors and maternity care providers and enable them update their knowledge and skills on the Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics (ALSO).
He lamented that Nigeria has a very high Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) with 814 deaths per 100,000 Live Births (LB) in the country when compared with other countries, like Norway, which has 5 deaths per 100,000 Live Births and Canada with 7 deaths per 100,000 Live Births.
A Guest Speaker at the training, Professor Olabisi Loto from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife also urged government and other concerned authorities in the country to make moves to address the problem of high maternal mortality in Nigeria.
Loto said the training became necessary given the alarming rate of maternal mortality in the country and that such training which is very costly in the developed countries was organized free for the maternity care providers in Osun to equip them adequately to be able to do their job well and ensure safe delivery for mothers.
