5 March 2008
Kwara — Wife of Kwara State governor, Mrs Oluwatoyin Saraki, has said Nigeria's seriousness towards reduction of maternal and infant mortality would to a large extent, determine the country's readiness at meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
Speaking at a meeting with wives of government officials in Kwara State, Saraki said it was no longer acceptable that women should die at child birth and that every child born deserves to have the best of health services, adding that she had dedicated herself to the fight against maternal and infant death.
The women, who are members of Kwara State Officials Wives Association (KWASOWA), said they had a primary duty of spreading the gospel of safe motherhood and care to all women in the state, adding that women were in the best position to influence the positive change that is needed at this time.
She said, "it is true that government has so much to do to stem the unacceptable rate of maternal and infant death. But we need all hands to be on deck. We currently have close to the highest rate of death from pregnancies in the world and in such a situation, we need to fight the scourge with all the weapons that we have."
She said the issue of lack of funds, which discourages women from going to hospitals was now a thing of the past, as the state government was set to adopt a free health care scheme for pregnant women and children under five, and advised Kwara women to seize the opportunity and save the country the trauma of needless deaths.
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