The Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN), as part of its SPEED Project anchored by the International Research Center of Excellence (IRCE) have tasked journalists on their pivotal role in reducing the rate of still birth recorded in the country.
This formed the basis of discussion at a One- day stillbirth advocacy training for journalists held in Abuja on Wednesday.
The Principal Investigator, SPEED Project, Mrs Oghome Emembo informed that one of the project objectives was to advocate for formulation/adoption/implementation of policies for process changes that affect stillbirths.
Emembo noted that one success recorded since the onset of the advocacy was the establishment of a stillbirth dash board on the Federal Ministry Of Health and Social Welfare Website.
Another success was the established relevance of still births to key outcome number 4 and 1 in the Federal Ministry Of Health’s blueprint.
She advised that, stillbirth issues should not be blanketed under Maternal Health but isolated because a lot of cultural factors come into play for stillbirth cases.
“Hiding stillbirth under Maternal Health makes sense but in the long term, it may not be the way to go. If you have a problem, you need to isolate your problem and deal with it squarely”, she said.
The Project Coordinator stated that despite the successes recorded, the goal of the project was far from being met, adding that they would want to see still birth data appear in the quarterly indicator of the Minister of Health.
“We want to see improve, optimized tool used to report data on still birth as the present one does not provide room for clarity. We want to improve that tool and ensure that after our project is done, the quality of data as regards to still birth is improved. After this project, still birth issues should be in the front burner”, she said.
On his part, Policy Research and Influencing Manager, Plan International, Tunde Aremu stated that Journalists were important in shaping policies and behaviors and ultimately helping the country take informed decisions.
Aremu noted that the media could tell stories on Stillbirth issues that would resonate with the common man and also prompt decision makers take the necessary action
Making reference to findings from the SPEED Project stillbirths quantitative data analysis which says, “stillbirths rate (SBR) is 24/1000 total birth in Nigeria and is currently twice the expected target per Every Newborn Action Plan(ENAP) global target of 12/1000 total birth by 2030.
“More than 404,305 stillbirths had occurred between 2014 and 2023 in Nigeria”, he said this was unacceptable and urged journalists to use their expertise to advocate and influence policies that would improve the stillbirth indices of the country.
