NAN-HG-11
Planning
Abuja, July 6, 2017 (NAN) The Association for Advancement of Family, an NGO, has called for a Family Policy, which traditional and religious leaders should champion to reduce maternal mortality.
Dr Adenike Adeyemi, a member of the Board of Trustees of the association, gave the advice on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.
Adeyemi, a former Director, Family Health Department, Federal Ministry of Health, said by leading such advocacy, traditional and religious leaders would be helping to break negative myths and beliefs about family planning.
Cue in audio (Adeyemi on family planning)
“Many women lose their lives in the process of having children because they don’t have access to adequate medical attention in the process of child bearing.
“Then when they have the children, the children fall ill. Under 0 to five years a lot of children fall ill.
“So, we have a lot of babies who are born who will never enter a health care facility because they have access issues.
“By that fifth birthday it is said that about 250,000 babies do not make it out of a million. If they do now make the fifth birthday, they have to go to school.
“Going to family planning service is an extra effort that most of them are not prepared to take.
“That is why women are helplessly and hopelessly getting pregnant because they can’t help it and it is the women who die.
“We need a family policy our royal leaders need to champion also our traditional leaders need to champion them.’’
Cue out audio
The former director, who accompanied Mr Eze Duruiheoma, Chairman, National Population Commission (NPopC) to NAN Forum, explained that family planning should not prevent women from bearing children as it should be seen as an opportunity to space the birth of their children in order to reduce death rate among pregnant women.
She said family planning also enabled women to bear their desired number of children so that they would be able to cater for their overall needs.
Adeyemi said that in the past, Nigerians practiced child-spacing irrespective of their religious and ethnic backgrounds.
She said it was unfortunate that the practice had since been abandoned.
According to her, in those days a woman with a child below two years of age was not permitted to be pregnant with another child.
She stated that having many children puts pregnant women at huge risk of dying before, during or after childbirth.
Adeyemi further said the association had continued to campaign against the increasing rate od child-bearing among Nigerians, especially in a situation where there was little or no available means of catering for their needs.
She said the production of more and more children without providing them education and healthcare meant a continuation in the country’s development struggle.
According to her, having children who will not be an investment means a disaster waiting to happen.
NAN reports that Nigeria’s population makes it the largest country in Africa and is attributed to by a rapid population growth of about 3.2% per year, a high fertility rate of 5.5 children per woman, and an average family size of 4.6.
According to a study on Reproductive Health and Family Planning Policies in Nigeria,
carried out by the Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH) in April 2016, despite committed efforts to scale up interventions for family planning over the last decade, the contraceptive prevalence rates for modern methods have largely remained unchanged at 10% over the last five years while the unmet need for family planning was 16%.
Consequently, there are worsening health outcomes; the maternal mortality ratio was estimated at 545 maternal deaths per 100,000 women live births in 2008, but increased slightly to 576 per 100,000 in 2013.
Nigeria thus contributes about 14% of the global burden of maternal deaths.
Likewise, mortality rates for neonatal (37 per 1,000 live births), infant (69 per 1,000) live births) and under five (128 per 1,000 live births), and are higher than in most African countries. (NAN)
MS/DOR/YEE
Edited by Nyisom Dore/Emmanuel Yashim
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