Newborn deaths: FG urged to finalise passage, approval of NHB

In the wake of  the State of the World’s Mothers 2013 Report ranking Nigeria 2nd among the top 10 countries with the most first-day of life deaths, the Federal government has been urged to urgently finalise passage and approval of the National Health Bill, NHB,  to provide more resources to tackle the high incidence of maternal and infant deaths.


The call is coming on the heels of the release of the  Report which ranked Nigeria 2nd among the top 10 countries with the most first-day of life deaths. According to the Report not less than 89,700 (9 percent) babies die on their first day of life every year in Nigeria.

The Report, which is 14th in series of the “Save the Children entitled “Surviving the First Day” compared first-day death rates for 186 countries and found that in most countries, children are at greatest risk on the day they are born.

Launching the report in Lagos, Country Manager, Save the Children International, Mrs.  Susan Grant noted the importance of the National Health Bill in addressing the underlying causes of newborn and maternal mortality.

Grant disclosed that Save the Children is focusing on four fronts in Nigeria as part of the global ‘Everyone Campaign’.  “First we are creating awareness of the challenges and solutions to maternal, newborn and child survival; secondly we are encouraging action for policy, practice and political change to reduce maternal, newborn and child mortality and to advocate for increased leadership, commitment and funding, etc”.
She maintained that helping babies survive the first day as well as the first week and first month of life represented the last great challenge if we are to achieve the Millennium Development goal of reducing Child mortality by two thirds by 2015 – this is less than two years away.

“Nigeria according to the Report has one of the highest numbers of maternal and newborn deaths adding that each year 40,000 women die during pregnancy and childbirth and over 2,590,000 babies die in their first month of life. Most of these deaths are preventable; the time is now for all of us to invest in newborns.

The Report outlines key interventions which can prevent newborns and mothers from dying.  Two-thirds of first day deaths of babies which is 673,000 out of the one million recorded annually occurred in just 10 countries globally,” she lamented.

In an overview, Senior MNH Manager, Save the Children, Dr. Abimbola Williams  regretted that global newborn health funding does not match the need.  According to Report, Haiti, Indonesia and Nigeria received roughly the same amount of aid for newborn survival programmes in 2008 but Nigeria has about four times the newborn deaths of Indonesia and 40 times the newborn deaths of Haiti.

Further, Williams listed  recommendations including: investing in health workers especially frontline health workers, investment in low technology solutions to save lives during pregnancy, at birth and immediately after birth, strengthening health systems and demand related barriers to the access and use of health facilities.

Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris described the Report as findings that would assist countries, particularly, Nigeria, in formulating policies that would help find lasting solutions to the alarming number of deaths.

Source: Vanguard