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From Emmanuel Adeyemi, Lokoja
A University Don and the Chief Librarian of Federal University Lokoja, Prof. Sarah Dauda Yani has identified cultural beliefs, ignorance and lack of adequate and prompt antenatal information to pregnant women as some of the key factors responsible for high pregnancy-related deaths in Nigeria.
Prof. Sarah Yani made this disclosure Wednesday while delivering the 31 Inaugural Lectures of the university entitled ”Helping Expectant Mothers Make sense of antenatal information and drift out of the claws of death”.
She said pregnancy-related deaths are one of the major causes of mortality and morbidity in women in Nigeria saying Nigeria is second to India in the ranking of countries with high pregnancy mortality globally
Similarly, Prof Yani said Northern Nigeria has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country with Kaduna State having 1025 deaths per 100,000 live births stressing that this calls for concerted and deliberate efforts to reverse the trends.
‘This is often not because there is no hospital or a hospital is nearby or a specialist is absent, but most time, because an expectant mother 1s ignorance of what should be ordinary information on signs and times of the state that help pregnant mothers contextualize practices that can lessen pregnancy-related burdens. Ignorance of such kinds of information can cause avoidable death of expectant mothers.
” Antenatal information dissemination is to promote healthcare-related goals and simplify four intersections i considered necessary for helping the country to intentionally eradicate fatalism associated with mortality and morbidity.
“The intersections of information dissemination and non-clinical interference include; bridging gaps; ensuring access to antenatal information, filling gaps caused by culture, and filling trust-related gaps and filling systemic gaps.
“Summarily, lack of access to antenatal information is responsible for most antenatal information gaps. It is responsible for the marginalization of expectant mothers. If the path to overcome barriers, such as; language barriers, illiteracy, and
ignorance were eradicated, then the gaps can be resolved or bridged.
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“Information should be broken into small packages in line with the types of information pregnant women receive and disseminated appropriately so that pregnant women are not overwhelmed and confused. Providing this information in diverse language understood by pregnant women is imperative.
‘For pregnant women to perceive and make sense of antenatal information, there is the need to find areas of intersection between their cultural beliefs and the information they receive.
” In order to improve the use of antenatal information by expectant
mothers, family members, especially their mothers, mothers-in-law and religious institutions should be encouraged to engage and educate expectant mothers of the benefits of antenatal information during pregnancy.
” Husbands should be encouraged to attend antenatal clinics with their spouses to facilitate the actualization of the social context, identity, retrospection, extracted cues and plausibility over accuracy construct of the sense-making theory” she added
In his welcome address, the
Vice chancenllor of the university, Prof. Olayemi Akinwumi said
the choice of the 31st inaugural lecture’s topic was both significant and relevant saying maternal and child health remain critical concerns not only in Nigeria but across the globe.
“The World Health Organization continues to emphasize the importance of antenatal care in reducing maternal and infant mortality. Yet, beyond access to health facilities, one of the greatest obstacles expectant mothers face is the ability to understand, interpret, and apply the medical information available to them”.
