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Childbirth and pregnancy can be the most simple, straightforward process ever.
Its a miracle from conception to birth and its such a wonderful thing. But one complication can make it all go wrong. And sadly for too many Nigerian women, childbirth often results in the death of mother or baby or both.
According to UNICEF, a woman’s chance of dying from pregnancy and childbirth in Nigeria is 1 in 13. Also a recent World Health Organization (WHO) report on ‘Trends in maternal mortality: 1990-2013’ classifies Nigeria as on of the 10 countries of the world that contribute about 60 per cent of the world’s maternal mortality burden.
Although many of these deaths are preventable, the coverage and quality of health care services in Nigeria continue to fail pregnant women.
These are therefore five aspects of how women give birth in Nigeria that need to change.
1. Presence of qualified medical personnel in every hospital or birth centre
While most people think that it is only poor pregnant women that suffer from the burden of maternal mortality, the sad reality is that women who belong to the low, middle and higher income class are also affected. While Nigerian experts will always give your reasons for the sad state of things in the country, the obvious truth is that pregnancy and childbirth are simply not given the appropriate amount of care and attention that it deserves in this country.
Ensuring that Nigerian women get the adequate amount of professional care during pregnancy and childbirth is of utmost importance. One way to ensure this is to guarantee that hospitals and birth centres have the right amount of skilled birth attendants that is essential in case anything goes wrong during childbirth.
Ensuring the availability and training of skilled birth attendants is required to prevent Nigerian women from dying of needless mistakes, wrong diagnosis, carelessness, incompetent staff handling deliveries, lack of access to prompt and affordable healthcare, unavailability of good ambulance system
2. Options for pain control
The common phrase we see here on Mamalette is that ‘I want to give birth like the Hebrew women’.
While wanting to have a natural medication free birth is a noble endeavour, Nigerian women should at least have the option to choose.
There are many effective options for pain control that we don’t necessarily see here in Nigeria. Pain relief options include drug-free methods such as hypnosis, acupuncture, massage, breathing techniques as well as medications such as nitrous oxide (gas), pethidine and epidural anaesthesia.
3. Post-partum care
There is a high incidence of women in Nigeria dying within the first few weeks of childbirth.
Most women on average spend between 3 to 5 days in hospital after the birth of their babies. Often a woman is then expected to check back in with her doctor 4-6 weeks after childbirth. But sadly things can often go wrong before this time.
In some countries midwives and nurses often visit new mothers at home, ensuring that their mental and physical health is stable, all while providing vital education and support during a very challenging time.
4. The stigma of C-sections
Most Nigerian women hate to hear the work CS. A CS also known as a caesarean section is a surgical procedure used to deliver a baby through an incision in the mother’s abdomen and a second incision in the mother’s uterus.
The stigma of C-sections in Nigeria is so ridiculous in Nigeria then many women when faced with the option of saving their lives and their babies lives would rather refuse this live saving procedure and end up dead.
The stigma is so bad that many women are made to feel a “failure” after giving birth through this method. Sometimes women feel that they are supposed to apologize or explain their babies came into the world through surgery. Some churches even go as far as to do fasting and prayer to make sure mothers don’t give birth through CS.
More Nigerians need to be educated about the benefits of C-sections, we need to remove the stigma from this life saving procedure this way more women and children can be saved.
5. Everything about labour
Women have complex needs during childbirth. In addition to the safety of good medical care, and the love and companionship provided by their spouses and family members, women need consistent, continuous reassurance, comfort, encouragement and respect.
Any woman who has given birth in a Nigerian hospital whether government or private, has one or two horror stories to tell about wicked and rude matrons.
Childbirth and labour is a sensitive period in any woman’s life and the last thing an expectant mother wants to hear is rude comments for example about how she should have kept her legs closed if she knew she cannot push out a baby.
The last thing any woman wants while trying to push out a baby is disrespectful, rude or hurtful comments.
Mums who have given birth in Nigeria, did we miss anything out?
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