Curbing Maternal, Neonatal Mortality Using Bio Medicals

Nigeria’s maternal and neonatal mortality is considered as one of the worst public health crises globally and to this end, there is urgent need for improved health care at all level to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

According to United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2016 State of the World’s Children report, states that 38 out of every 1,000 babies die within the first 28 days of birth while 645 out of 100,000 women die during or shortly after child birth due to avoidable conditions.

In Nigeria on the other hand, about 40,000 women and 260,000 newborns (excluding 300,000 stillborn) die during or shortly after childbirth annually.

Approximately 29 percent of the newborn deaths (90,000) occur in the first 24 hours of birth.

In a bid to tackling this ugly situation and create room for safe deliveries and emergency care for both mothers and their babies, the world soft drink giant, Coca- Cola Plc birthed the Safe Birth Initiative (SBI) with the theme, “bringing mothers and babies home and alive”.

This initiative was launched in 2017 with the sum of US$20 million grant from Coca-Cola to Medshare International Inc. a US-based non-governmental organization saddled with the responsibility of sourcing essential medical equipment, kits and supplies to enable safe deliveries and post-delivery emergency care for both mothers and their newborns.

The program included the training of bio medical technicians and other appropriate hospital personnel by Medshare International on the operation, repair and maintenance of the donated equipment as well as the reactivation of a huge stock of faulty or abandoned equipment in public hospitals which is a major challenge for the country’s healthcare delivery system.

Recently in Lagos at the graduation and certificate presentation of the 20 trained Bio-Medical Engineers from 10 tertiary hospitals across the six geo political zones in Nigeria, the Director Technical, Office of the Senior Special Assistant to President, Mohammadu Buhari on SDGs, Dr. Bala Yusuf, said while giving his endorsement remark applauded Coca Cola for the Safe Birth Initiative.

Yusuf however lamented over the lack of capacity at the primary health care level as there are issues with the quantity and quality of front line health workers, adding that majority of Nigerians live in the rural areas and to a large extent affects the health indices negatively.

According to him, “in the course of my career in development practice, I have been to a community in the northern part of Nigeria where it is a sign of weakness for a woman to deliver in the health facility. This cultural and traditional belief and practices is a major issue that is reducing our National output in SDGs as our National input will continue to be low if we do not work at the rural level.”

He further said that the government is currently signing a Memorandum of Understanding, (MoU) with State and local governments to ensure that SDGs targets is been operationalized.

Also giving his endorsement, the Federal Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, who was represented by Dr. Dada Adedamola, Chief Medical Director, Federal Medical Centre Ebute Meta in Lagos, reiterated that “most of Nigeria’s problems like high maternal and child mortality is actually from the North East then to the North West and then back to the country.”

To reduce these deaths to the nearest minimum, the minister said the Primary Health Care (PHC) system needs to be strengthened to make it more accessible.

Adewole said that the present administration has renovated 4,000 primary health care centres, adding that the target is to revamp about 10,000 PHCs so as to reach every political ward in the country as it will contribute to curbing maternal and child deaths.

He also cited some cultural belief that has inhibited the countries health care system, stating that, “some women belief there is absolutely no need receiving health care from a facility but a traditional home, Pastor or Imam to have their babies.

“A lot of times, these women present complications and then are rushed to the hospital and by then, the situation has deteriorated. By that time, there is little or nothing anybody can do.

“If we must get it right as a country, we must have a functional PHC and create a good access to health through the health insurance and the universal health care system which covers the individual and make it accessible.”

He however called on the beneficiary hospitals to put in good use the bio-medical training acquired to the consumables and equipment as it will further save the lives of women and children.

Lending her voice, Professor of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Chinyere Ezeaka, said one of the root causes of high maternal mortality in Nigeria is poverty

Ezeaka said, “looking at Nigeria’s out of pocket expenditure is about 68 percent. At the Abuja declaration in 2001 which talked about 15 percent of the National budget for health but we are still less than four percent.

“National health act and the basic health care packages are commendable if we quickly implement it as it will stream down to the rural communities and most of these problems will be alleviated.”

Ezeaka, who is also the immediate past President of Nigeria Society of Neonatal Medicine (NISONM), noted that illiteracy, cultural practices contributes negatively to these high mortality stressing that health cannot run alone as it must go with education, finance as well as social welfare.

She added that, “sometimes, when i am on ward round, i see some mothers that cannot buy intravenous infusion. It is very critical that as a country we must look at universal access to health.

“Many African countries like Ghana, Malawi, Rwanda has left us behind, as they have community health insurance covering up to 90 percent of the population. With these kind of policy, mothers in Malawi, Kenya just walk up to hospital and deliver their babies and the system goes on.”

Ezeaka said that Safe Birth Initiative is apt, even as she advised the government to implement laudable policies, guidelines, road map like the Child Health Policy, Integrated Maternal and Newborn Policy, Adolescent Health Policy as well as Newborn Health Policy.

Earlier in his opening speech, the Director, Public Affairs Communications, Coca Cola West Africa, Dr Clement Ugorji, said “a community that loses its women and newborn has lost its basic life.

“So for that reason, coke company thought of creating an impact through capacity building for engineers which will enable them update their knowledge on modern and new hospital technology.”

On abandoned equipment littered in the hospitals, Ugorji said a task force will be created to go round the hospitals to identify these abandoned equipment, reactivate them and put the machine in service.

He however said Coca Cola will purchase and donate equipment that are required by these hospitals like incubators as well as create capacity so that these technicians will be able to update their knowledge about these equipment.

Ugorji said that “the SBI is launched on a three tier program; firstly, the equipment, train the engineers/technicians and repair abandoned equipment, making it a holistic program

“The first phase of SBI is for two years with 10 tertiary hospitals already mapped while the hospitals for the second phase have been identified.”

He called on private partners to invest in SBI in order to sustain this laudable program targeted at bringing mother and baby home and alive.

Presenting the certificate to the graduates, Prof Carmen Walker, who runs a bio medical engineering training program at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, (LUTH) said Bio Medical engineers are more than just repairing the equipment as these equipment saves patients’ lives.

She said that each trained bio-medical engineer will in turn train others who were not opportune, adding that the medical doctors do not know more than these engineers, they only know something different same with the engineer, hence team effort, mutual respect is key.

Professor Carmen said “sometimes, the patients dying is not dependent on the doctor or nurse, and sometimes the person standing in between the death and the patients is the bio medical engineer.”