91% Of Women In Rivers State Patronise Skilled Birth Attendants – UNICEF
By Alice Etuka, Port Harcourt
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has disclosed that 91% of women in Rivers State deliver with the help of skilled birth attendants.
UNICEF Health Manager, MNCAH and HIV, Martin Dohlsten, disclosed this on Tuesday, at a two day media dialogue and field trip on neonatal health care, childhood illnesses and MR Vaccination held in Port Harcourt.
Dohlsten said only half of the women in Nigeria deliver with the assistance of skilled birth attendants, however, data from Rivers State showed significant patronage.
He explained that Nigeria’s high mortality rate was due to this statistics, adding that there was a relationship between the number of women being attended to by professionals during child birth and the child’s survival rate.
He revealed that 32% of children born in Nigeria die between day 1 to 28 of their life due to being born prematurely or birth asphyxia.
He also said 79% of newborn deaths were due to infections, prematurity and asphyxia adding that progress in neonatal health care would be achieved if the government focuses on them.
He blamed this on lack of stable electricity, running water, skilled birth attendants, a solid referral system and lack of clinical guidelines for maternal and Newborn care.
On his part, UNICEF Health Specialist, Dr. Abe Eghe said the Organisation had been championing vaccination campaigns across the country to reduce the number of children dying from vaccine preventable diseases:
“For UNICEF, what we try to do for Rivers State is to support both routine immunization, intensification of routine immunization, support with supplementary immunization, and ensure that the states have adequate resources.
“Last year, River State was supported to conduct a measles campaign, and they were able to get as much as 78% of the target coverage. And also, ongoing right now is that we’re also supporting them with a big catch-up campaign, where we are trying to see, that those children missed during the COVID era get immunized”, he said.
