By Ozioruva Aliu

BENIN CITY – A public health advocate and medical practitioner Dr Owen Omo-Ojo on Monday raised the alarm on death in childbirth among women in Nigeria saying every pregnancy should end with the mother alive, safe, and able to hold her newborn child.

She said with right policies and programmes, death of mothers during childbirth can be eradicated in Nigeria.

In a statement released to mark the country”s National Safe Motherhood Day, Omo-Ojo said “we must confront a painful truth: preventable maternal death remains one of Nigeria’s most urgent public health and social justice failures. For too many families, childbirth ends not in joy, but in grief. A mother is lost, a child is left vulnerable, and a family is permanently changed”

She said “One of the leading causes is postpartum haemorrhage, severe bleeding after childbirth. It is fast,dangerous, and unforgiving when not recognised and treated early. Yet it is also highly manageable when the right systems, tools, and skilled care are in place. The tragedy is not that we do not know what to do.The tragedy is that proven solutions are still not being applied consistently where they are needed most.”

Omo-Ojo said in many Nigerian health facilities, blood loss during childbirth is still estimated visually rather than measured objectively adding that the delay in recognition can lead to a delay in treatment “and in maternal care, delay can be fatal.

“This is why practical, evidence-based interventions must move from policy documents into routine care.One of the most important is the WHO-backed E-MOTIVE protocol, which combines calibrated bloodcollection drapes for accurate blood loss measurement with a bundle of rapid-response treatmentsonce postpartum haemorrhage is identified. It is a simple but powerful model that can improve earlydetection, speed up response, and save lives.”

She said that despite the Federal Ministry of Health’s updated guidelines on postpartum haemorrhage management and the adoption of E-MOTIVE, implementation has remained far-fetched and that many government facilities and most private health facilities have not integrated these guidelines into everyday practice.

She lamented that his gap between policy and implementation is costing lives. still, protocols alone will not solve the crisis.

“What Nigeria needs now is the political will, financing, and implementation discipline to bring those solutions to scale.
Safe motherhood is not a privilege. It is a right, and Nigeria cannot continue to lose its mothers.

“Nigeria’s maternal mortality burden is sustained by deeper systemic weaknesses: shortages of skilled birth attendants, under-equipped facilities, weak referral systems, inadequate emergency obstetric care, and the financial barriers that prevent women from accessing timely care.

“If Nigeria is serious about reversing this trend, maternal health must be treated as a national priority “