Rotary international is educating medical personnel and stakeholder of tertiary hospitals in the country to curtail the alarming Maternal and Perinatal Mortality in Nigeria.
According to UUTH Chief Medical Director Dr. Emem Bassey, Nigeria and Malaysia some years gone had equivalent maternal deaths record but today Nigeria is lagging behind. ‘This training is something good and I am happy with the effort of Rotary International. We should imbibe the Malaysia experience in maternal mortality reduction.’ The former commissioner for Health in Akwa Ibom State, Associate Professor, O&G and a Chapter President of Rotary said during the opening ceremony of the training.
Prof Adedolapo Lufadeju, National Coordinator of Rotary International programme on Reduction of maternal infant mortality disclosed that during the Training of Maternal Matrons and Medical Records Officers, MROs in Uyo, the dual focus shall be first to establish Maternal and Prenatal Death Surveillance and Respond MPDSR. And secondly ensure MROs catalogue data for budget, planning and management
Lufadeju stated that recent report showed that about 576 deaths, out of every 100,000 birth have been recorded in the country.
He said that the programme is aimed at training the medical personnel on how to keep records of every maternal and perinatal mortality in a data base that will reflect as SMS alert for responding officers immediate action.
According to him, data base would help investigate on the cause of death and create lasting solution to prevent reoccurrence of such incidence.
“This programme is to train officers of the Tertiary Hospitals, Head of Gynaecology Department, Medical Records Officers and Maternal Matrons on how to keep their hospitals in a proper shape and how to reduce maternal and infant death.
“This platform brings the data out from all facilities in the country. Nothing is hidden anymore. The idea is to record the deaths, review it and put in intervention to ensure that such death does not occur again.
“What we have is 576 deaths by every 100,000 birth which is a very huge figure. If we are all conscious, and do the right thing, automatically, maternal and infant death would reduce.
“We can use the data we have to make changes so that the system can be improved in the hospital. If a woman dies due to lack of blood, they should create blood bank.
“The platform gives us the target for intervention and it is those target intervention that helps to reduce the death rate, ” he said.
Also Speaking, Prof. Oladapo Shittu, of Amadu Bello University Zaria, called on relevant stakeholders to extend helping hands to pregnant women in their community by enlightening pregnant women on the need to go for antenatal clinic.
“This involves stakeholders who have a key role to play to improving the health of women and children. This is a country where before now, nobody cares when a woman dies. But it is no longer so.
“With this program, when one woman or an infant dies, the data must be uploaded after 24 hours to the national data base and once it goes to the national data base, it triggers up some alarms.
“The national population commission would immediately know that another Nigerian has died,” Shittu said.
The general workshop online included, Record officers training and development of implementation plan.
Apart from understanding fill out of forms for documentation of maternal statistics, Rotary also focus on ensuring ‘No Stock out’ for contraceptives in health facilities in all geopolitical zones, states and wards throughout the country, and holds monthly community dialogue.
The humanitarian body anticipate in the next 3 years to dwell with birth controls and looks toward to achieve these targets using Rotarians as supervisors and partnering with Road Transport Unions.
