Onitsha — A medical expert, Dr. Edward Sowho, said in Awka that Nigeria has the worst maternal health indicator in the world going by World Health Organisation's findings.

Sowho said of the estimated half a million women that die worldwide each year from complications of childbirth and pregnancy, Nigeria contributes 55,000.

He said most maternal deaths in the country are due to immediate causes such as haemorrhage, ecclampasia, obstructed labour and the like, while remote causes such as unfavourable social, economic and cultural conditions also contribute.

Addressing a training workshop for medical doctors, pharmacists and midwives on life saving skills/emergency obstetric care, Sowho said while the remote causes may take years to detect, the immediate causes could be addressed by sensitising, conscientising and refreshing the knowledge of medical doctors, pharmacists and midwives on emergency obstetric care and life-saving skills as well as deploying them to where they are most needed.

He said the workshop "is the product of the Anambra State MDG 2008 Implementation Committee geared at addressing and attaining the fifth Millennium Development Goal which is to improve maternal health."