Would Encouraging women to attend antenatal visits help reduce maternal mortality in Nigeria?

On Wednesday 13th May 2015, Theodora Anavhe Adamu Foundation (TAAF) reached out to pregnant women in primary health care center-Byazhin community Kubwa to mark her 2nd year anniversary and to promote the message of safe motherhood. Every two minutes another mother dies in childbirth. Encouraging pregnant women (especially rural women) to visit health facilities during and after pregnancy will reduce the rate of maternal mortality in Nigeria. Today, to promote the message of safe motherhood, women in Byazhin community were given maternity packs. The maternity packs will help encourage these women to give birth in health facilities where they and their babies have the best chance of surviving childbirth and the opportunity to receive the care and advice they need for a healthier start in life.

Theodora Anavhe Adamu Foundation was founded in memory of late Theodora Adamu who died as a result of pregnancy complications. To mark her 2nd year anniversary, an outreach was organized for pregnant women in a community in Kubwa Bwari Area Council to encourage women to take antenatal checks more seriously.

Good care during pregnancy is important for the health of the mother and the development of the unborn baby. Pregnancy is a crucial time to promote healthy behaviours and parenting skills. Good ANC links the woman and her family with the formal health system, increases the chance of using a skilled attendant at birth and contributes to good health through the life cycle. Inadequate care during this time breaks a critical link in the continuum of care, and affects both women and babies.

Toyin Abiola, a mother of one and one of the recipients of the maternity packs thanked the foundation for taking such initiatives and said that even though being a mother, she had never heard about what complications of pregnancy was and that she didn’t take antenatal visits so seriously before today.