Millions of Nigerians are dying from preventable diseases due to low investment and corruption in the health sector. More than half of these Nigerians that lose their lives almost everyday are mothers and infants as the maternal and infant mortality rate is high in Nigeria.
Katrina Chollom was a beautiful young woman, one of the most active members on our Mamalette platform, she had looked forward to having her beautiful baby in her arms, sent series of messages to our platform asking other moms to share their motherhood experiences with her and telling them how she couldn’t wait to join them in the motherhood journey. Little did she know that she wasn’t going to live to see the child she wanted so dearly.
Katrina died as a result of complications during childbirth. It was so unfortunate she never lived to share her experience with other moms as she wished so much to do so. She could have been saved if the doctors had all the facilities they needed, the complication could also have been detected earlier to save both lives of the mother and child, But that is if only we had the right facilities to do so and if the few hospitals in Nigeria that had such amenities weren’t so expensive. Rest in peace Katrina Chollom, we will always miss you.
Another Mamalette shared her experience with us, she told us how she and her friend tried to conceive for so many years to no avail until they went for to a fertility clinic and had ‘In vitro fertilization’ (IVF). The IVF procedure involves fertilizing an egg outside the body, in a laboratory dish, and then implanting it in a woman’s uterus. We all know that getting an IVF isn’t cheap, it’s very expensive, the Mamalette explained, she said that while she was lucky because she had enough to spend on her IVF treatment her friend wasn’t so fortunate but she and her husband were in serious need of a child so they spent almost all they had on the IVF treatment which came out successful. Both friends had conceived triplets, It was an awesome experience for both of them because it meant they didn’t have to try again.
The Mamalette explained that when it was almost time for both of them to deliver their triplets, she travelled to America to have her kids but her friend couldn’t because she couldn’t afford it after spending so much on the conception of the triplets. She explained further that she successfully delivered her babies in the US without any complications but her friend wasn’t so fortunate here in Nigeria as she lost her life and that of the three babies during childbirth due to the negligence of the medical officials and the lack of proper facilities to detect when to deliver the three babies. She added that the doctors kept telling her friend it wasn’t time yet and that she should wait till she was in full labour. Three babies is a long way from one, The foreign doctors knew this and did the right thing to save all 4 lives but it was a different case in Nigeria. Should innocent lives continue to be lost just because they are not rich?
Another Mamalette told us her story recently with tears rolling down her cheeks as she explained how she lost her 10 months old infant in a renowned teaching hospital in Lagos. She said her daughter was diagnosed to have had Ventricular septal defect (VSD- which is a defect in the septum between the heart’s two lower or pumping chambers (ventricles). The septum is a wall that separates the heart’s left and right side. Septal defects are sometimes called a ‘hole’ in the heart. It is the most common heart problem that babies are born with.)
No mother prays to give birth to sick child, and even when incidents like this occur, a mother would always do everything possible to save her child. This Mamalette explained how she and her husband went from doctor to doctor, hospital to hospital and they all kept telling her to take her child to India, because that is the only place her child can get proper treatment and medication. Of Course, if she had so much money, she wouldn’t have even gone to them in the first place right?
She said further that after all their search for funds didn’t seem resourceful at first, she was forced to take her child to the teaching hospital in Lagos where about 10-12 children were packed in a ward like ‘sardines in a tin’. She mentioned that that really wasn’t her worry but the fact that almost everyday, one of the children died and it was as though, the other children were awaiting their execution time.
“I couldn’t put my child through the suffering any more, so my husband and I sought help from Nigerians on every social media platform and offline media that we could use. We were finally able to raise the money to fly our child to India for proper treatment, but some few days to the day we were to travel, my daughter died and that was how I lost my precious baby. This is the first time I’m sharing this with anyone after bottling it up for so long. I am only doing this because I want a change and I do not want other moms to experience the same fate as I did because infant mortality is sad and it’s not something you get over. I still have nightmares about my daughter” She said.
We might not have been able to save all the lives that we have lost in the past, but together we can reduce the rate of maternal and infant mortality in Nigeria. It is our choice now to choose between joining a cause to improve the health care system and save lives of poor Nigerians or to sit back, do nothing and let more lives go. President Buhari and the Nigerian government have an historic opportunity and mandate to change this. By taking action we can help save millions of lives and create a more healthy, prosperous, secure and corruption-free nation.
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