With the third highest maternal mortality ratio, MMR, in the world in 2020, Nigeria is facing a maternal mortality crisis with 1,047 deaths per 100,000 live births. This high ratio has been found to be due to direct or indirect obstetric complications some of which arise from preventable causes.
Increasing the population of women delivering in a health facility is challenging, as it requires comprehensive efforts to overcome multifaceted obstacles to accessing facility-based care. One important factor affecting interventions targeted at maternal mortality is the absence of quality and accurate data that presents the situation within the communities. Facility-based records miss out on the substantial proportion of women in Lagos State who utilize private health care, traditional birth attendants, and religious centres, or choose not to utilize formal healthcare making it difficult to target interventions to women and their families to reduce adverse maternal and child outcomes. and centres.
MamaBase is a project that seeks to address maternal mortality and morbidity by identifying vulnerable pregnant women within low-income communities, linking them to care and supporting them from pregnancy to delivery in a safe and healthy way that protects their dignity and well- being. The intervention will also create an e-registry of pregnant women within the State. It is a project that seeks to connect the healthcare system with the community, improve voluntary registration and utilization of health facilities and ultimately provide real-time evidence for interventions and policymaking.
After the pilot phase of this intervention, we envisage that over a year 5,000 women will be registered and linked to formal healthcare and that at least 80% of these women will access maternal services at the health facilities throughout the period of pregnancy from ANC to Delivery and PNC.
The high rate of maternal mortality and morbidity in Nigeria is due to numerous causes which can be classified as either direct or indirect obstetric. Studies have shown that flaws in the health care system and hostilities between midwives and traditional birth attendants (TBAs) are contributing to the high rate of MM in Nigeria. Nigeria accounts for 20% of the global maternal death rates with a maternal mortality ratio of 1,047 deaths per 100,000 live births as of 2020.
There is a substantial number of women who experience severe maternal morbidity due to obstetric complications. Recent evidence from a national surveillance study in tertiary hospitals highlighted that some causes include significant deficiencies in the prevention, identification and referral of severe morbidities at primary health centres (PHCs), barriers to appropriate care-seeking at the community level, a dearth of critical emergency obstetric care skills amongst clinicians managing pregnancy and poor uptake from community members. When women experience significant morbidity and mortality during childbirth, it further impacts the health and development of the next generation and their families economically and socially with long-lasting ripple effects on their larger community.
The Iyaloju Initiative intervention is a system-directed and multifaceted approach that seeks to address the maternal needs of urban poor women by targeting some root causes of the obstacles they face in accessing high-quality and respectful maternal care. The approach includes Improving service delivery through Emergency Obstetric Care (EmOC) training for clinicians, including nurses, midwives and doctors and Respectful Maternal Care (RMC) training for all PHC staff; Generate demand for facility care through participatory discussions with women in our host communities; Supporting the health management information system through training of Data Managers and Records officers; and Involvement of local stakeholders through data use and evidence-based decision-making workshops with health agency leadership and policy stakeholders.
MRH Collective held a stakeholders’ meeting with Lagos State Policy Makers to communicate insights from data collected, explore pathways to translate evidence from data to policy components, share updates on the Iyaloju project, and receive feedback to strengthen project design and implementation for the MamaBase project.
Participants at the workshop included officials from the Lagos State Primary Health Care Board, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Lagos State Health Management Agency, Lagos State College of Health Technology, Yaba and the MRHR Collective team.
Refers to the specialized medical services and interventions provided to pregnant women during childbirth and the immediate postpartum period to ensure the safety and well-being of both the mother and the baby. MRHR recently trained doctors and nurses from primary health centres across Lagos state on the identification of emergency signs during pregnancy and how to administer the appropriate care. This include courses on uterotonics, maternal sepsis, postpartum haemorrhage etc.
This training equips skilled birth attendants with the knowledge of using a vacuum or forceps in vaginal deliveries.
Refers to an organized form of care provided for all women in a manner that maintains their dignity, privacy and confidentiality.
The program involved the screening of hundreds of women in Lagos using visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) to determine their risk and refer them appropriately.
Strengthening Maternal Health Through Strategic Partnerships
9, Razak Balogun Street
Off Adebola Street
Off Adeniran
Ogunsanya Surulere,
Lagos State
Nigeria
info@mrhrcollective.org
+(234)08139707005
