60,000 pregnant women die annually —Commissioner

Nigeria - The Kwara State Commissioner for Health, Mr. Kayode Issa, says that about 60,000 pregnant women die annually from pregnancy and childbirth related cases.

He spoke during a training  for health workers on maternal morbidity and  mortality reduction tagged, ‘Safe motherhood,’ in Ilorin on Monday.

Issa said about 59 per cent of Nigerian women deliver without attending any antenatal care.

The essence of promoting safe motherhood initiative, he said, was to reduce maternal mortality, noting that out of 100 pregnant women, 75 of them will have normal deliveries.

He added that five would have to be operated on, while 15 would have complications.

He lamented that it was difficult to ascertain those that would develop complications or require surgical delivery until the delivery day.

He said the state government was investing towards reducing maternal mortality; adding that it had provided free health care services and bought many kits  to be distributed free of charge to pregnant women who  attend antenatal clinics.

“In view of this, there is the need for skilled obstetric care for mothers and effective prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS, if we must achieve the Millennium Development Goal of reducing maternal and child mortality rate by two-thirds of the pre-MDG levels by 2015,” Issa said.

He said the training was to strengthen the capacity of the health workers, who provide effective maternal health care services and care for the new born.

He added that in the aftermath of the training, health workers would be able to render mother and child-friendly services, all of which are geared towards reducing maternal and child mortality within 48 hours of delivery.