Women engineers task Nigerians on blood donation to save lives

The Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN) has charged well-meaning Nigerians to donate adequate and safe blood in order to save lives of people with different ailments, especially women who die of uncontrolled bleeding during and after childbirth.

The association made this known at a lecture to mark 81th birthday anniversary of its founding President, Olutunmbi Joanna Maduka. The Olutunmbi Joanna Maduka Annual Lecture (OMAL), held at Lagos Oriental Hotel Lekki, is titled, ‘Reduction of Maternal Mortality Through Provision of Adequate and Safe Blood.’

The celebrant said as that the association often picks engineering topics every year but they decided this year to chose a topic that affects women generally and deliberate on it.

Maduka said that many women, today, are still dying in silence from pregnancy, miscarriages, abortions and other related health conditions and all these health issues were discussed at the event in order to create awareness and proffer solution.

Maduka explained that women needed to stay in safety environment adding that even climate change is affecting the wellbeing and health of women, which should be addressed.

She said women at the age of child bearing should take care of them selves and register for antenatal healthcare services to enable then go for medical check ups to avoid untimely deaths while delivering.

Guest Speaker at the programme and Acting Head of Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion Eko University o Medicine and Health Sciences Dr. Modupe Olaiya said the summary of her lecture was focused on the need that women are dying of childbirth and the major cause of the death is inadequate supply of blood.

Olaiya stated that there are tree types of blood donors, which include commercial, family replacement and voluntary blood donors. She further said that the best, adequate and safe blood is the one generally collected from voluntary blood donors because they are doing it voluntarily and not for money.

She said that women can also participate in blood donation and become voluntary blood donors in order to save their fellow women but the person must be up to 18 to 65 years and weighs 50 kilogrammes and above.

Olaiya said a blood donor could be a male or female but must have enough blood within him or her to be able to donate. “The blood when collected can be separated into different components and it will be usually screed before it is used. Even blood donors can be screed for different ailments before the person donates blood therefore safe blood is needed in order to prevent unnecessary deaths among women.

The serving President of APWEN, Elizabeth Jumoke Eterigho, said the lecture always coincides with the founder’s birthday yearly. She noted that in year 2020, the association could not celebrate the birthday due to COVID-19 pandemic, while 2021 birthday was celebrated online because of the pandemic.

She said: “Our Mama is 81 years old and we thank God for her life.”Eterigho said OMAL Lecture Series can be termed as a professional development lecture series and this year would not be an exception as the speakers have deliberated on topic that is more incisive and relevant to the health of professional women engineers.

She said: “We hail and acknowledge our founding members for lighting up the coast and ensuring that today we stand on an elevated pedestal to look at our society and to find opportunities to embed values at all strata especially for the girl child meaning that the founder’s passion has remained potent till date. As an avenue to continue to appreciate all the group breaking efforts carried out by our founding members, programmes were instituted and named after most of our founding members”.