Mrs. Aisha Buhari, the Wife of Nigerian President, has reiterated that no woman should die giving birth and no child should lose their life without ever having a chance to live.
She made the statement at the flag off the 2018 May Round of the Maternal Newborn and Child Health Week at the State of Osun on Monday, 21st May, 2018.
Mrs. Buhari called on every pregnant woman to know her HIV status in order to protect her unborn child.
She was represented at the event by the North East coordinator of Future Assured, Hajiya Hansatu Zanna.
Mrs. Buhari said Future Assured is complementing government efforts toward improving the maternal and child health indices in Nigeria, as the preventable deaths of women and children, negatively affect every aspect of development as a Nation.
“We hear the number of women who die while giving birth across the nation daily and they are often times reduced to numbers and percentages.
However, if we make deliberate efforts to put relationships, names and faces to these figures, we would not only see maternal and child mortality but actually see real people – our wives, sisters, children, neighbors, and friends; then we would be able to truly appreciate the gravity of our current situation.” She said.
Mrs. Buhari stated that although reasonable progress has been made over the years, statistics vary from one region to the other, “but that is not enough reason for any group in the country to relent in their efforts or celebrate victory just yet , as long as women are dying from preventable causes, all hands must be on deck to ensure that pregnancy, delivery and child raising is not seen as life threatening.” She said, calling for systems to be strengthened and women to be supported to adopt healthy practices and seek appropriate maternal healthcare.
Earlier the wife of the Osun state Governor Mrs Sherifat Aregbesola said the state of Osun placed high priority on the issue of improving health care delivery as Osun state is one of the few which has properly positioned its Primary Health Care Board to have full coverage in all the local government areas, apart from this traditional birth providers in the state are being trained in order to kit them with the effective knowledge on safe child delivery to enable every person have access to the essentials that guarantee survival and quality life.
During the programme Mama kits, long lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets and solar lamps were distributed to pregnant nursing mothers courtesy of Future Assured.
MNCH week is a massive demand and supply drive aimed at addressing the appalling indices of maternal and child health in the country, it was introduced in 2010, following the recommendation of the National Council on Health as a strategic intervention to accelerate the reduction of child and maternal mortality in Nigeria. The main objective is to improve access to an integrated package of essential, quality and cost effective maternal, newborn and child health services to underserved and hard to reach communities.
