According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), a new global maternal mortality report found that 82,000 women die in Nigeria each year from pregnancy and childbirth-related complications.
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Eduardo Celades, UNICEF Nigeria’s Chief of Health, stated this during a media dialogue on COVID-19 and routine immunization held on Friday by the UNICEF Nigeria Office in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture’s Child Rights Information Bureau (CRIB).
The report, titled ‘Trends in Maternal Mortality 2000 to 2020,’ was produced by the United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter Agency Group (MMEIG), which includes WHO, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the World Bank Group, and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (UNDESA/Population Division) and spans the years 2000 to 2020.
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Celades explained that it equated to 225 maternal deaths per day, indicating that the number of women dying from pregnancy-related causes was extremely high in the country.
He described the solution as “a three-pronged approach that includes increasing effective investments in primary health care at the state level, as well as the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF).”
The UNICEF Nigeria Chief of Health went on to say that the second was to expand the National Health Insurance Scheme, emphasizing that it is a powerful tool for achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and lowering maternal mortality.
He also stressed the importance of focusing on the most vulnerable, such as women who lack access in difficult-to-reach areas.
Celades bemoaned the fact that Nigeria had the world’s second highest number of zero-dose children, while calling for routine immunization to be prioritized in order to protect Nigerian children from vaccine-preventable diseases.
