The UN Population Fund has described the quality of Nigerian midwives as “phenomenal” and commended their efforts toward reducing Maternal Mortality in the country.
Ulla Muller, the UNFPA Country Representative in Nigeria, made this known when she featured virtually on the News Agency of Nigeria Forum on Sunday.
MM is defined by the World Health Organisation as the death of a woman from pregnancy-related causes during pregnancy or within 42 days of pregnancy.
Muller said the country’s midwives were among the best in the world, adding: “Nigeria has quite an impressive level of healthcare workers.
“You have very good midwives.
“The quality of your midwives is phenomenal.”
She said Nigeria was among countries with high burden of Maternal Mortality in the world, noting that the number of midwives tackling the situation in the country was inadequate for the demand of their services.
She said the UNFPA was working towards training more midwives and building their capacity to attend to more women during labour.
Muller stressed that midwives were in better position to attend to women during childbirth as they were skillfully trained to know when a pregnant woman was in danger or not.
The UNFPA country representative advised Nigerian women to trust midwives and call their attention during labour.
She, however, noted that though most women preferred doctors to attend to them during labour, “but I really want to say that midwives are what you want during delivery; midwives are awesome.”
She restated the commitment of UNFPA to reproductive health of women and girls, saying that the safety of mothers and children was imperative.
“We are committed to preventing neonatal deaths, maternal deaths, as well as achieving unmet needs for Family Planning,” she said.
She also expressed the determination of the UN agency to continue to partner with Federal Government in building the capacity of midwives for safe childbirth and for functional health facilities.
Muller added that “equipped hospitals and trained midwives will lead to deliveries where mothers and children will be safe.”
She said that WHO estimate showed that 50 per cent of health facilities, especially in the North East, had been destroyed due to insurgency, adding that UNFPA would continue to partner with state governments to rehabilitate and build the capacity of health providers.
The country representative also affirmed the commitment of the Fund towards achieving its three transformative goals and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
She listed the transformative goals as; achieving zero Maternal Mortality, zero Gender Based Violence and unmet Family Planning needs of the people by the year 2030.
Muller explained that Family Planning and education were key to achieving both the UNFPA goals and the SDGs, adding: “Family Planning and education are major drivers of Demographic Dividends too, where the country could reap the benefits of its strong and reproductive population.”
She said though Nigeria also recorded a spike in cases during the COVID-19 lockdown, the Federal Government declared GBV as an emergency “and that means that there has been a lot of focus on it.
“Right now, however, more than half a million women need protection from GBV; the need is enormous, but we have to achieve it.”
NAN.
