Doctors explains the major cause of maternal deaths in Nigeria
managarciya
Medical doctors at the Ibadan Central Hospital (ICH) say unavailability of basic health facilities is a major factor fueling maternal deaths in Oyo State.
They stated this during a maternal health gathering organized by ICH to mark its 25th anniversary.
They called for improvement in the number and standards of basic health facilities in the state to reduce the high maternal mortality.
Dr Desmond Oludele, a medical director at ICH, said, “One of the major causes of maternal mortality in Ibadan is lack of access to basic health facilities. ICH is well equipped with facilities to help pregnant women and also educate them because education is also very important as most of them are not aware of what to do before, during and after pregnancy.”
Speaking on the plight of pregnant sickle cell mothers, Oludele said there is a need for early diagnoses of mothers’ genotypes and regular medical checkup at competent medical facilities to forestall instances of complications related to their condition.
He said: “For sickle cell patients, our advice is that as much as possible, go to the hospital or any diagnosis centre to do the tests and know your genotype and once this is confirmed, you can always go to health facilities to do a checkup if they have any illness so that they can be tested and treated as soon as possible because most times, sickle cell patients die from their health condition because of lack of access to basic health”.
He added that this was necessary because sickle cell patients are more prone to anaemia and infection which, when not promptly addressed, leads to further complications.
Dr Oludele said with the availability of basic healthcare systems, a number of sickle cell patients successfully go through pregnancy and child delivery without hitches.
