MSD for Mothers Partners’ drive solutions to reduce maternal mortality in Nigeria

Amid multi-dimensional challenges threatening the survival of mother and newborn during labour in Nigeria, development agencies and other relevant stakeholders in the maternal health industry are leaving no stone unturned to change the devastating narrative.

Significant percentage of pregnant mothers in Nigeria fall victims of the horrific circumstances on a daily basis in the labour room as a result of haemorrhage, sepsis and eclampsia, aside other indirect factors leading to mortality during labour.

Yet, experts believe the increasing rate of maternal death in Nigeria can be mitigated with the right manpower in place and necessary facilities accessible for maternity care.

Sadly, the position of the experts came amid ugly concerns of perennial systemic failure and manpower deficit in the nation’s health sector, aside the ethno-cultural dimension bewildering several interventions meant to reduce the challenge.

The Maternal Mortality Ratio remains a source of disaster in Africa with more than two-thirds 69 per cent of maternal death occurring in the black continent, a World Health Organisation database indicated.

Nigeria has the third largest MMR in Africa with estimated 1,047 deaths per 100,000 live births, coming next to Chad with 1,063 deaths in 100,000 and South Sudan takes the lead margin with the alarming 1,223 deaths per 100,000 live births. This frightening data continues to soar despite the global decline in the MMR put at 34.2 per cent between year 2000 and 2020.

At the 57th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON) 2023 held recently in Kano, the MSD for Mothers Partners showcased various interventions including practical solutions and strategies being implemented to reduce maternal mortality.

The partners used the side event organised by the Nigeria Health Watch, supported by MSD for Mothers to broaden the stakeholders’ awareness at the conference about the scope of their intervention and the results of technology and innovation introduced to enhance maternal health in Nigeria.

Programme Manager, Saving Mothers Giving Life (SMGL), a maternal health project, Paulina Akanet, explained how the project is improving quality maternal health through capacity building of health workers in Kaduna State, the project area of implementation. Akanet said the project being implemented by Pathfinder International is changing the paradigm especially in the private health care system with strategic innovation including safe care methodology, improving quality assurance and ensuring synergy between private and public facilities to reduce mortality ratio in the country.

Akanet emphasized that the Saving Mothers Giving Life project was first implemented in Cross River State by Pathfinder International, targeted to improving maternal and neonatal health facility services. He said the project focuses on addressing the three delays that lead to maternal deaths and by providing access to family planning services, especially the long-acting reversible contraceptives.

Akanet said, “We are working exclusively in the private sector to improve quality service on maternal health in Kaduna. Our project focuses essentially on capacity building of health workers and save care methodology. We focus on the informal sector to ensure implementation of health insurance schemes to reduce out of pocket spending on health.”

Project Aisha, another maternal health intervention partner guided by an overarching vision to have zero preventable deaths for women and children during childbirth. The project also addresses the systemic drivers of maternal deaths at multiple levels within the health system.

Sharing the project implementation milestones towards improving maternal health in Lagos and Kaduna, Quality improvement advisor, Dr. Emmanuel Ashandole said project Aisha is mitigating the barriers bedeviling maternal health.

Ashandole explained the project is working with communities that target influencers including traditional leaders to create awareness on the need for nursing mothers to patronise medical facilities. He said the project is discouraging mothers from using traditional birth assistants to reduce mortality.

“Project Aisha is addressing the barriers and factors causing maternal mortality in the country including economic, cultural, beliefs and practice. We are working with community leaders including traditional leaders to create awareness on the need to use health facilities and stop patronage of local attendance.

“We focus on technology driven to train health workers and women to achieve that focus. The project also offers financial support for upgrading of obsolete equipment, recruitment of manpower and training,” Ashandole said.

Smiles for Mothers, a partner project hinged on financing and operational revitalisation of maternal care, also showcase the impact of intervention targeted at reducing maternal and newborn mortality in the country.

Head of Service delivery, Smiles for Mothers project, Dr. Tunde Amode, said resources are being provided for health care financing, digitisation of health records management, capacity building of health facility staff and demand creation in Kano, Lagos and Delta, areas of implementation.

Besides, Amode emphasized that Smiles for Mothers is harnessing community engagement to correct native mindsets of people about health centres. He said the project embarked on visibility studies to gather public opinion especially the worries about healthcare services and correct the partner to suit public demands.

MSD for Mothers, a $500 million global initiative helping to create a world where no women has to die giving life. The project is reaching more than nine million women in 48 countries contributing to the global effort to save women’s lives, strengthen health systems and meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).