Maternal and Child Mortality in Nigeria
For the most part, Nigeria is doing poorly in the health industry. Given its developmental stage however, the country is not expected to perform at the same level of excellence with Industrialized countries. But its poor and jeopardized developmental pathway has retarded its overall socioeconomic progress. The statistics is high for a country that has the amount of human and natural resources Nigeria is blessed with. Loads of institutional patterns of error had plagued the most populous black nation of the world. Malaria, tuberculosis and other third world infectious diseases are still threatening the productivity of the country. With “recovery” system of governance and institutional ignorance, life expectancy in the country is estimated at 47-50 years of age. Nevertheless, life above 50 is characterized by affluence, education, nutritional intelligence or ability to drag on to the end.
As globally attractive as Nigeria may seem, especially in oil and gas drilling, the human development report of 2007/2008 did put the black nation in its place. The UNDP report ranked Nigeria close to bottom in the maternal mortality index. The country was only ahead of low income countries under stress (LICUS) like Rwanda, Angola, Chad, Niger, and Sierra Leone. The political argument behind this ranking is rested on the nation’s population and human density; which allows higher contact rates and rapid spread. As much as that part is true; the nation has no clear view on how to keep its citizens healthy.
There is no shared vision amongst the health care stakeholders. This includes care delivery organizations, clinicians, health care consumers and policy makers. Undoubtedly, with higher population thccbd.us increase in disease spread. Nevertheless, for Nigeria, there is no in depth profiling of the health of its citizens. The oil rich nation lacks proper information gathering and dissemination systems. These 21st century multi-dimensional development tools inform a country on required patterns of intervention. Every citizen-within accountability age brackets – should understand how much of health care remains a civil right against what is available.
The country needs to get the politics and economics of the situation right. Health promotion and care delivery in the nation needs audacious, practical and quick impact development projects.
Statistics on Maternal and Child mortality:
According to a national estimate, the Nigerian population is at 140 million; 1 in 5 Africans is a Nigerian. By the same report, 23% are women of child bearing age. In 2006, a national report estimated that 65 million Nigerians were females. 30 million of that number is within reproductive age -15-49 years. 6 million Nigerian women are expected to get pregnant every year. In 2007, WHO, UNICEF, UNDP estimated only 5 million of those pregnancies to result into childbirth.
