Reaching a tertiary hospital during childbirth complications no longer guarantees survival for pregnant women in Nigeria, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, George Ugwu, has warned.
Ugwu, who is also the Enugu State Commissioner for Health, raised the concern while delivering the 251st inaugural lecture of the University of Nigeria at the UNN Business School Auditorium, Enugu Campus.
Presenting his lecture titled, “The Mother, The Child and The State: My Triumphant Journey from Evidence to Action,” the don highlighted findings from the Nigerian Near-Miss Maternal Death Surveillance Network involving 42 public tertiary health institutions across the country.
According to him, researchers monitored 91,702 live births and recorded 2,449 severe maternal outcomes, comprising 1,451 near-miss cases and 998 maternal deaths.
The study, titled “When Getting There Is Not Enough,” found that women who arrived alive at tertiary hospitals could still die because of delays within the health facilities, inadequate equipment, shortages of blood and other resources, and insufficient readiness among medical personnel.
Ugwu explained that having the correct diagnosis was not enough if healthcare workers lacked the blood, operating theatre, equipment or personnel required to immediately treat the patient.
He recalled a case early in his career involving an unbooked pregnant woman who bled to death in a labour ward, stressing the need for hospitals to be adequately prepared to handle emergencies irrespective of patients’ booking status.
The professor also raised concern over Nigeria’s disproportionate contribution to global maternal mortality. He said although the country accounts for about 2.8 per cent of the world’s population, it contributes nearly 29 per cent of maternal deaths globally.
To reduce preventable maternal deaths, Ugwu called for the establishment of dedicated early-pregnancy assessment units in public hospitals, staffed by resident gynaecologists and equipped with functional ultrasound machines.
He also identified the migration of healthcare professionals as a major challenge, citing research which found that 79.8 per cent of Nigerian healthcare workers were actively seeking to leave the country because of insecurity, poor remuneration and inadequate working tools.
Ugwu urged governments to improve working conditions to retain skilled medical personnel and called for the adoption of the United Nations’ Availability, Accessibility, Acceptability and Quality framework in healthcare delivery.
He further appealed to the National Assembly to increase funding for the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund from one per cent to five per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, arguing that stronger domestic financing was necessary to sustain maternal and child healthcare amid declining international donor support.
