By Huseyn Abubakar Mbar
Iya Abdullahi, is a mother of eight, and hailed from Jabbal Settlement in Bindir Ward of Katagum Local Government Area of Bauchi State.
At 35, Iya’s one desire is to have more children in keeping with the tradition of her people.The Islamic tenent on inheritance provided that a larger share of inherited wealth goes to the woman with the highest number of children.This is even more compelling if the woman has more Male offsprings.
But Iya’s dream for more children ended too soon and in a tragedy. Expectedly, she was in a high spirit before she went into a prolonged labour.Iya bled profusely and died after she was delivered of her baby prematurely. The baby also died shortly after due to the absence of a health facilities in the settlement about 10km away from Azare Federal Medical Center (FMC), the Katgum Counci’s headquarters.
Iya is not the only victim of the seemingly high mortality rate in Bauchi State. Addaworo Muhammed, also 35, of the same settlement, had aborted eight children due to lack of modern health facilities that would have avert such ugly trend. Available statistics show that over 1.5 per cent of pregnant women die from pregnancy-related complications in the area.This translates to about 1,559 women in every 100,000 births, the figure showed.
World Health Organisation data corroborated the simily ugly data. WHO said that the maternal mortality rate in the state is far above the national average of 800 per 100,000 births. It said that the figure rippled the 300 deaths per 100,000 births in the entire South-West states. Besides, WHO said, was not significantly better among the under-five- year-old. WHO reports, said that the under five Mortality rate in the state stands at 596 per 100,000 birth clearly indicates that the state parades one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.
But what exactly is responsible for the high maternal and infant Mortality rates in Bauchi State? Available records showed that the state government had accorded health sector priority in its budgetary allocation annually in the last 12 years. Former gov. Muhammed Abubakar of the state had between 2015 and 2019 evolved a five-point health agenda to salvage the sector but was thwarted by lack of release of the budgetary allocation to the sector. Some stakeholders have adduced reasons for the ugly situation.
The EU/UNICEF Team Leader in charge of Hard To Reach (HTR) Project in Katagum Local Government Council, Mrs Adebisi Ibinola, corroborated the statistics revealed by The Nigeria Democratic and Health Survey (NDHS), 2018 that the rate of maternal rate of the state was 596 deaths per 100,000 births and said maternal Mortality rate in the state called for concern when compared with the national average.
Of the 63 per cent of women who received antenatal care from health professionals in the state, she said, only about 17 per cent had their babies with help from trained professionals.
Ibinola, who is also a retired Nurse and Midwife, believed that the high teenage pregnancy and unsafe abortion rates in the state had also compounded the ugly trend. She blamed the state’s high maternal Mortality rate on the low socio-economic status of women. This, she argued, had denied women access to modern reproductive health services due to the high cost of health services.
Another reason, she said was distance to health facilities “bad roads and poor attitude of health providers to pregnant women are also contributing factors,” Ibinola said.
Other factors, she said, included socio-cultural barriers that prohibit women from accessing reproductive health information and services. The factor that a woman must first seek permission from her husband before leaving home for the hospital contributes to the problem.
Ibinola said even under emergency situations, a woman must not leave home for the hospital without the permission of her spouse.
However, Hajiya Amina Abdu, a retired Nurse and Midwife, who is the Team Leader of HTR in Misau Council of Bauchi State, also corroborated Ibinola saying that the neglect of the health sector by the past administration was the major factor. She also attributed the negative trend to the activities of untrained birth attendants.
Abdu cited othe factors to include harmful traditional practices, poverty, ignorance and malnutrition among women of reproductive age. According to her, some women die due to excessive bleeding caused by pregnancy-related complications. She said that the death of qualified reproductive health experts and the absence of modern health facilities were part of the problem.
The health sector, Abdu said, was starved of funds during the past years.
