Reuben Buhari
10 July 2009
Kaduna — The Federal Government has decided to recruit 3, 000 midwives this year as a means of halting the increasing maternal and infant mortality rate in the country.
Minister of State for Health, Dr. Aliyu Idi Hong, who revealed this in Kaduna State yesterday, said that N3 billion had been budgeted for the project, which, according to him, will be increased to 5, 000 midwives later. He added that the numbers of midwives will be increased to 10,000 in 2012.
At a stakeholders meeting on the Midwives Services Scheme (MSS), organised by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Hong said the recruitment is in addition to other measures the Federal Government is taking, which includes carrying out capacity building workshop in all state of the federation for health care delivery workers.
While appealing to nurses in all hospitals, especially government-owned hospitals in rural areas to render humane treatment to pregnant women, the minister, added that more needed to be done if the menace of infant and maternal mortality is to be halted, which he added has degraded the quality of life.
"Please, our midwives should be humane while dealing with these rural women who only need to be oriented with simple methodology.
By the time they are treated with courtesy, that is when they will be friendly and start coming to access health facilities instead of relying on traditional means, " he said.
In his opening speech, Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate, lamented the menace of infant and maternal mortality, saying "The burden of premature death and ill health in Nigeria is staggering and disproportionally borne by mothers and children."
According to him, "Conservative estimate indicate that every 10 minutes, a woman dies on the account of complications of pregnancy or child birth, giving a total of 53,000 per year. This means about 800 women die in every 100,000 live births.
"On the newborn and child health, an estimated 5,909,000 babies are born annually, approximately 284,000 die in the neonatal period, 1,048,600 die before their 5th birthday."
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