800 pregnant women die annually

The UNFPA Executive Director, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, has said 800 women die in pregnancy or childbirth annualy as a result of complications that were often preventable.

In a statement, Osotimehin said of every woman who dies, around 20 more suffer debilitating childbirth injuries such as obstetric fistula. “We already have an international consensus on how to address that. All we need now are resources and accelerated and sustained action,” he said.

Osotimehin stressed that working for the survival and the well-being of women and girls was a human right imperative and in order to take advantage of women’s full potential in the development of their nations, they must be able to plan their lives and families.

The UNFPA boss said, “This is why the international community is determined to making universal access to reproductive health a priority. As we commemorate this year’s World Population Day, it is time to re-energise our commitment to universal access to reproductive health services, especially voluntary family planning.

“This commitment is relevant today as it was when world leaders made it at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo.

“We have to meet the needs of 222 million women who want to delay or avoid pregnancy, but have no access to modern contraceptives. This would help prevent 21 million unplanned births; this would also help prevent 79,000 maternal deaths and 1.1 million infant deaths.”

Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Adebayo Sodade, stated that Lagos State had an estimated population of 20 million and an annual growth rate of 3.2 per cent.

Sodade said it was necessary to create awareness about the importance of family planning and child spacing to have a manageable population.

The permanent secretary said if this was done, the health of women in Nigeria would improve and child and maternal mortality rate in the country would reduce.

According to him, policy formulation will also be effective on the population.

“Judging by these statistics, it then becomes imperative that we all join hands together to ensure that all population-related indices, especially in the area of health care, are compiled and disseminated on regular basis.

“This would go a long way to help in effective decision making, which would benefit the entire population,” he said.

The Federal Commissioner of the National Population Commission, representing Lagos State, Mrs. Roli Bode-George, bemoaned the gross lack of awareness of family planning services in the state.

She said that statistics had shown that 71 percent of the population had never used any family planning service.

According to her, the early introduction of family planning services to Nigerian girls at the age of 15 is key, as most girls are already sexually active by then.

The commissioner said that adequate reproductive health services should be made available not only to women at childbearing age, but women generally all through their lives.

“We are not only talking about effective reproductive health services for women of childbearing age (15-49 years), but also women who have had previous births.

“Some women suffer from negative impact of child bearing, such as cervical cancer caused by multiple births in quick succession.

“At age 15, most girls are already sexually active, therefore, it is essential to introduce them to family planning services at that age, so as to reduce unwanted pregnancies and have a resourceful population,” she said.

The commissioner called on the Federal Government to make a law which would give a specific age at which a girl could get married, irrespective of tribe, religion and culture.

“There should be a law which would regulate the age at which a girl can get married, so as to reduce the number of children which are being born and improve the reproductive health of our young girls,” she said.