By Doris Obinna
Experts have said issues arising from high-risk pregnancies could be prevented through child spacing. An obstetrics and gynaecology expert at Bayero University, Kano, Prof. Hadiza Galadanchi, said one of the most effective ways for addressing the challenges of maternal morbidity and mortality was family planning and child spacing.
She stated this during a three-day media training organised by Rotary Action Group for Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health (RMCH). According to her, child spacing addresses high-risk pregnancy.
“As it stands, Nigeria’s contraceptive prevalence ratio (CPR) has remained stagnant for decades. CPR is still at 17 per cent, which is one of the lowest around the world. Nigeria is yet to achieve improvement in curbing maternal mortality. Something drastic has to be done to bring changes. We have unmet needs of women who want contraceptives but can’t get it,” she said.
On his part, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, College of Medicine, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Prof. Christopher Aimakhu, said, fully meeting women’s need for contraceptive services and maternal/newborn health care in Nigeria would cost about $5 billion each year.
“Nigeria would need about $26.09 per capita, a total that is roughly the same cost as meeting the need for maternal and newborn care alone. If full provision of modern contraception were combined with adequate care for all pregnant women and their newborns, maternal deaths would drop by 68 per cent (from 61,000 to 19,000 per year) and newborn deaths would drop by 85 per cent (from 255,000 to 38,000 per year).”
Aimakhu, secretary general if the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria, said that unintended pregnancies, unplanned births and abortions would reduce drastically if women’s needs were met: “If all unmet need for modern contraception in Nigeria were satisfied, unintended pregnancies would drop by 77 per cent, from 2.5 million to 555,000 per year.
“As a result, the annual number of unplanned births would decrease from 885,000 to 200,000 and the number of abortions would drop from 1.3 million to 287,000.00.
“Also, family planning 2020 commitments, which include building partnerships, among others, to improve access to family planning through collaborations, will go a long way, if religiously followed.
“Collaborations with local and international non-governmental organizations, government parastatals, civil society organisations, faith-based organisations, religious and traditional leaders, to address socio-cultural barriers and limitations to family planning services as well as appropriate health information would break barriers of misinformation.”