From left: Monday Osaigbovo, Edo Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs; Dr Itohan Osayande, Research fellow, OnTIME consortium; Dr Charlotte Stanton, Google representative; Dr Aduragbemi Banke-Thomas, Associate Professor, Maternal and Newborn Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine/Principal Investigator, OnTIME Project; Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State; Iyoha Toni Osaigbovo, Chief of Staff; Prof. Obehi Akoria, Commissioner for Health; Prof Bosede Afolabi, Co-investigator, OnTIME Consortium; Osasere Evbuomwan, Commissioner for Environment; Dr. Rock Amegor, Director General, Edo Health Insurance Commission, at the OnTIME-Google Stakeholders’ briefing on improving pregnant women’s travel time to obtain emergency obstetric care, in Benin City, Edo State.
By Josephine Agbonkhese
No fewer than 82,000 Nigerian women died of maternal and pre-natal mortality annually out of 282,000 deaths globally.
The Co-ordinator, OnTIME Consortium, Dr. Aburagbemi Banke-Thomas, gave the World Health Organisation, WHO, 2023 figures while addressing a stakeholders’ meeting in Benin City, Edo State.
He quoted the WHO as saying that approximately 830 women died from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth daily with Africa accounting for the highest.
Dr. Banke-Thomas, therefore, made case for prompt access to critical maternal health services, otherwise known as emergency obstetrics care (EMOE), provided by skilled health professionals, explaining that it reduces maternal death among women who reach health facilities by 15-50% and intrapartum skill birth by 45-75%.
“EMOE is a package of nine critical chemical and surgical evidence-based intervention including parental antibiotics, uterotonic drugs, parental anti convulsant, manual removal of placental conception, assisted vaginal, delivery, neonatal resuscitation, blood transfusion, and cesarean section,” he said.
According to Dr. Banke-Thomas, before women with obstetric complications can access EMOE, they would need to travel from their residences to health facilities with EMOE facilities.
He said: “What has been well-established is that long travel time and delays experienced from home to health centres significantly impact pregnancy outcomes for mothers and newborns.”
He disclosed that in Nigeria, a high population of maternal deaths occur while women are taken to health facilities for care.
Among those who attended the event were Dr. Akoria Obehi, Edo State Commissioner for Health; and Prof. Darlington Obaseki, Chief Medical Director, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH, Benin.
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