By Anino Aganbi

WITH the issue of maternal health weighing heavily on the minds of people, Dr. Osamiluyi and his team have taken medical research beyond the four walls of the hospital. Although it is important to visit health care during pregnancy, he has made it possible for women to go through various stages of pregnancy knowing what to expect.

Dr. Osamuluyi

He runs an Information health company called Premier medical system which uses health information to allow the understaffed have access to information easily. He also works with Partnership for maternal and child health (PMCH).

Information technology on maternal mortality.

We developed an application for expectant and new mothers. In Nigeria, maternal mortality is a big deal . The population if Nigeria is just 2% of the worlds population but we are responsible for 14% of maternal mortality in the world next to India which is responsible 17% .  We decided to look into the causes of maternal mortality.

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The irony was that all these causes are generally preventable. Part of the factor that influences maternal factor in Nigeria is ignorance and cultural belief. We decided to look into a plausible solution as an information technology companies and found out education played a major role in the lives of these women.

A very big challenge was how to deliver this education to the women.  We asked ourselves questions on which mediums to use in reaching these women, Tv, print, radio but we felt  the most appropraite channel to get to the people most affected in the rural areas.

Reaching out to women…..

We found out the easiest way to reach these women was through the mobile phone. We developed an application called Omowumi. Through this application, we try to influence the well being of families and we also look at the appropraite route for us to deliver education to a problem that is prevalent in Nigeria.

Omowumi basically delivers health education using text messages and voice calls to expectant and new mothers. When a woman is pregnant and becomes registered on this platform, she begins to get stage based messages, the woman gets the message based on her last menstrual period. When she is in her tenth week, she gets messages specific for women in their tenth week. Symptoms differ at various stages in pregnancies, so these are things we look into.

We did a pilot in Ogun state. We found people who had received the message asking us if we were pregnant with them. Based on a general survey, we had looked at what they should expect at various stages.  We have gone beyond the pilot stage. We partner with some hospitals in Lagos and Delta.

Working on women specifically……

My background as a medical doctor has enabled me that health issues among women is fast becoming a huge problem. I have seen the ignorance of women especially in the remote areas. Women and children are more vulnerable in the society. We discovered that only about 38% of Nigerian women are attended to by skilled birth attendants during delivery.

How  has it being working with female related issues?

It has been wonderful dealing with women. They are very appreciative people. Our pilot in Ogun state wasn’t just about delivering information to them, we gathered feedback and the results were staggering.

How have you been able to impact the lives of women so far?

It is an ongoing thing. We hope to be able to impact more in the area of what we are doing which is maternal mortality.  We could say we have ultimate and intermediate goals but our aim is to reduce maternal mortality.

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The intermediate goal is to get these women to go to the hospital more. We want to change their behaviour when it comes to health issues. We are trying to empower women with the information they need to be able to take the right decisions.

Whats steps are you taking to enable you go beyond maternal mortality?

The Ogun State government has a community based insurance scheme tagged ‘Araya’, we are working with them under the platform of the  government economic forum. Using the mobile phone, we want to go beyond maternal mortality to deliver health education for people who are registered under this platform.

Apart from them getting general health messages, they also get messages specific for a condition which they have been diagnosed of. The newspapers and electronic medias are wonderful and have their places but we feel the mobile phone is a cheap and effective way of reaching people in their homes and offices.

This is something we are doing, working with the public sector and other private sectors.

Are you looking to partner with Lagos state government on this?

Maybe Lagos will come on board as time goes on. We just decided to start with Ogun state for now so that by the time we come to Lagos, we can show that this is something that has been done and piloted succesfully. Lagos state is highly populated and would carry more cost. A lot of people who seem to be educated are very illiterate when it comes to matters of their health. For the average Nigerian,instead of looking for ways to manage a condition like diabetes that has no cure would rather pay huge sums of money to people who claim to have cure to such ailments.

Educating people on health issues…

A lot of people are dying in Nigeria and you see people talking about brief illness, it is an expression used widely by Nigerians.  You hear people say somebody died after a brief illness but you would never imagine what that brief illness entailed.

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Maybe if we are more open about these things then people will learn more. Most times, a lot of blame is put on the doctors. We might have our faults as medical doctors but the patients equally carry some of the blame.  For instance, a woman who was told probably from her 25th week of pregnancy that she might have to do a caesarian section at 32 weeks to reduce her health risks tells you God forbid, it is not her portion when she has clearly been told of the complications that may arise.

I am a Christian and I believe in miracles. But if you believe in miracles and your faith is not strong, you then come to the hospital when you are almost due and are bleeding then it becomes the doctor’s fault especially if due to one reason or the other he cannot salvage the situation.

What role does physical fitness play?

Exercise is very good for any body regardless of your health condition. I used to tell my patients to make it a duty to work out. You would realize that as you are growing on the outside, you are also growing on the inside. You have fat deposits growing inside as well which brings the possibility of these blood vessels being blocked and that is trouble. Health is not something you leave to chance.

You have to take deliberate steps to ensure you are healthy. As you age also, you might be predisposed to some other conditions. Our environment might not give room for taking walks but in other countries, walking is encouraged by their society.