How Akwa Ibom is adopting innovative solutions to end maternal, newborn mortality

Akwa Ibom State in partnership with the federal government has announced plans to crash the high rate of maternal and newborn mortality by adopting innovative solutions in healthcare delivery services aimed at ensuring that no pregnant woman dies while giving birth.

The decision was arrived at the end of a five-day workshop in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State for the implementation of the Maternal and Newborn Mortality Innovation initiative (MAMII), a national health programme aimed at improving maternal and child health outcomes across the country.

Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Health, Ekem Emmanuel John, blamed the high maternal death on ignorance by pregnant women who “chose Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) at health facilities when they want to be delivered of their babies, adding that the TBAs do not have the requisite skills to take deliveries’’.

To arrest the ugly trend, the commissioner inaugurated a special task force to ‘kick out’ maternal mortality in the state with membership drawn from key stakeholders in the health sector, medical and health union leaders as well as royal fathers and experts with a specific mandate to eliminate all factors that have contributed to maternal and neonatal deaths are eliminated.

According to the commissioner, “ a lot of our women do not deliver with skilled birth attendants, that is by doctors, nurses, people who are trained to take delivery, who have the requisite skills to conduct deliveries. And a lot of our people go to the traditional birth attendants.

“We are trying to restructure what they do through health education, community mobilisation, they should be able to track the pregnant women and take them from their houses when they are in labour, take them to the health centres and and hospitals and they will be given incentives,

“We are saying that enough of these deaths, we do not take our cars to carpenters to fix when they are bad, we take them to the proper professionals. So if we value our cars, if any part of your car is bad, you don’t go to a carpenter, why would you now take life to someone who is not trained to handle life. We have a lot of avoidable deaths involving both the mother and the child.

“They keep dying unnecessarily and that is why the federal government under Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and because it also aligns with the arise agenda of Governor Umo Eno. We are coming together with the federal government and it is a strong partnership to kick maternal mortality out of Nigeria and more especially out of Akwa Ibom state.”

He advised pregnant women to avail themselves of the MAMII scheme by attending antenatal care in health facilities including giving birth even by cesarean section which he said would attract no cost, adding that both the state government’s health insurance scheme and the ambulance service were aimed at making health care accessible and affordable for all including the pregnant women.

Speaking to reporters, a medical doctor and the National Coordinator of MAMMII, Dayo Adeyanju, said local government areas and states that were selected for the pilot scheme recorded over 1000 maternal mortality which he said is beyond the national average of 512 per 100,000 life births.

“Interestingly, Akwa Ibom has three LGAs, in the 172 LGAs, The 172 LGAs actually contribute 55 percent of the maternal mortality in the country and the country contributes 30 percent of the global maternal death which President Tinubu finds uncomfortable and he said we need to exit that kind of a status.

“So that what informs the MAMI, and MAMI seeks to understand those barriers which we have found out in the last five days, by clear action plan or roadmap is what we have handed over to the commissioner

“That roadmap is the responsibility of the taskforce and they must ensure its implementation by working together and collaborating to be able to crash maternal mortality.

Many beneficiaries of the healthcare services including pregnant women, who gave birth under the scheme gave testimonies that they were delivered of their babies free of charge even by cesarean section and engaged ambulance services provided by the state government.