By Onwa Ekor
Cross River in conjunction with other health related partners have initiated innovations aimed at 30 percent reduction of maternal and neonatal deaths by the year 2030.
This was the essence of Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiatives (MAMII) co-creation workshop, held in Calabar.
The MAMII project jointly coordinated by Federal Ministry of Health and social welfare, National Health Insurance Authority, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, National Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative, NEMSAS Saving lives and Cross River government, focuses on 172 local government areas spread across 33 states of the federation where over 55 percent of maternal and neonatal deaths are recorded.
Cross River Commissioner for Health, Dr Henry Ayuk represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Dr. Jonah Offor, informed that the causes of maternal deaths range from obstructed labour, haemorrhage and highpertension among others, a development he said, need to be addressed through political will.
“The cause of all these is our weak health system and for us to come out of the mess is for us to develop a political will to strengthen our health system through health infrastructure, adequate human resources and developing a good referral mechanism to reduce the waiting time that our mothers will be attended to.
“It is also important that mothers take responsibilities for their reproductive health, have children they plan for and consider what they eat as pregnant mothers,” the Health Commissioner said.
D-G Primary Healthcare Development Agency in Cross River, Dr Vivian Mesembe Otu, pointed out that Nigeria has high maternal mortality rate with severe economic and social implication including increased family burden, premature loss of childhood and severe limitation on socioeconomic development.
Otu said: “When a mother dies, it has severe implications on not just the immediate family but the children as the husband becomes a widower and the children become motherless, hence all hands must be on deck to reduce these deaths.”
For MAMII team head for Nigeria, Dr. Dayo Adeyanju, represented by the MAMII lead for Cross River, Dr. Iniofon Inyang, at the end of the 5-day workshop, a MAMII taskforce would be inaugurated to drive the process in the state, maintaining that, “this will see to 30 percent reduction of maternal and neonatal deaths as well as 60 percent utilisation of healthcare services in Cross River by 2028.”
Giving the objective of the workshop, Sector wide Approach (SWAP) Desk officer, Edith Ekworm, explained that it would obtain commitment from stakeholders towards effective execution of MAMII intervention suites, cocreate state context specific intervention suites and activation plans based on deep drive visits and other quantitative insights.
She added that the workshop will conduct deep drive visits to communities to uncover barriers contributing to maternal and neonatal mortality across priority local government areas as well as provide an overview of MAMII roles and responsibilities of States for effective execution.
Others who spoke at the event including representative of Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Alexander Dachung; State MAMII technical consultant, Dr. Ogonna Nwankwo; Lanre Alabi of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); Dr Glory Archibong of World Health Organisation (WHO); and Dr Michael Itam including the Cross River Director of medical and dental services, Dr Stephen Agbor, among others, pointed out that although Abi local government area in the state remains the first to be selected due to its indices, the programme will be extended to other local government areas across the state.
They also fashioned out ways for the programme to succeed, reiterating that the success of MAMII initiative depends not only on promises and plans but on shared commitments to actions and results.
High points of the opening ceremony were a review of field visit guide and tools including a video entitled, “Why did Mrs X die?”
