Health
FARUK Jega, the Country Director, Pathfinder International, an NGO, on Tuesday in Abuja, said that the group’s programme called “Saving Mothers Giving Life” helped to reduce maternal mortality rate by 66 per cent in Cross River.
Jega disclosed this during an end-line dissemination meeting on “Saving Mothers, Giving Life initiative in Abuja. He said that the goal of the meeting was to present findings on the state of maternal, newborn health and family planning, following the implementation of the initiative in the state.
He added that the meeting was also aimed at engaging stakeholders in forward-thinking discussions on how to translate key recommendations of the end-line assessment to action.
Jega said that the initiative, which was implemented between 2014 and 2019, had ambitious goals of reducing maternal and newborn deaths in the state.
He explained that “in the last four and half years, we have been able to reduce hospital-based maternal mortality rate by 66 per cent, and early neo-natal mortality rate by 37 per cent.
“The results show that ending preventable maternal and neo-natal deaths can be achieved within short period of time, with requisite investments.”
He, therefore, urged government and key stakeholders to make strong political commitments on saving the lives of mothers and babies.
He noted that funding for the project came from USAID and Cross River was chosen due to its poor maternal mortality indices, demography, socio-economic factors and the fact that the state had highest deliveries outside hospitals.
Ms Vathani Amirthanayagam, the Team Lead, Reproductive Maternal and Neo-Natal Child Health, USAID Nigeria, said the initiative reduced maternal death by 66 per cent in the state.
She said Federal Government could look into the model to scale up in remaining states and appealed to government at all levels to establish maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response team for comprehensive national data on maternal mortality.
The surveillance team would work toward keeping data on women who passed on while giving life.
“The data will contain the names of the women and their stories and that will enable us to work out how to help other women to avoid similar death,’’ she said.
She noted that “when the project winds-up in Cross River, USAID will start another project in Bauchi, Kebbi and Sokoto states.”
Mr Abdulaziz Mashi, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, said that the findings from the NGO would help toward creating maternal and newborn health policy.
He said “government is therefore looking forward to the presentation of these findings, as the initiative is in line with the ministry’s maternal and newborn policies and programmes.
“We are sure that the results would help to guide our policies and programmes for Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care Services, which is the bedrock of reducing preventable maternal and newborn mortality.”
Dr Bassey Joseph, the Permanent Secretary, Cross River Ministry of Health, commended USAID and Pathfinder International for the initiative. According to him, maternal mortality has greatly reduced in the state. (NAN)
– July 23, 2019 @ 16:12 GMT |
Tags: Maternal mortality rate in Cross River declined by 66%
