As Nigeria continues to grapple with alarming infant and maternal mortality rates, a consultant paediatrician, Dr Richard Olumide Oyefeso, is championing a crusade to bridge the health gaps and ensure that no mother or child dies due to preventable causes.
Oyefeso is the founder of 4Breath4Life (4B4L), a nongovernmental organisation focused on saving lives by addressing preventable deaths and enhancing healthcare infrastructure.
Since inception, 4B4L has trained over 5,000 healthcare providers in life-saving maternal and neonatal care across Nigeria. Its recent collaboration with the Paediatric Association of Nigeria (PAN) and Nigerian Society for Neonatal Medicine (NISONM) has helped to create a paradigm shift to scale the work.
The consultant paediatrician emphasised that Nigeria’s high infant and maternal mortality rates were unacceptable, necessitating urgent attention from the government and organised private sector.
According to him, “Every life matters, and everyone deserves a basic level of human dignity and respect. We must break down silos and collaborate intentionally to achieve sustainable impact.”
As a fellow of the American Academy of Paediatrics and advocate for health equity, Oyefeso’s impactful work spans Africa, the Caribbean and North America. His commitment to social impact and equity has earned him recognition, including acceptance into Summit, a global gathering of change-makers.
“It’s imperative that we have a clear policy, whereby a skilled attendant must be present at the birth of every baby everywhere. More than 700 babies die in Nigeria everyday; a national travesty and emergency,” he declared.