Abuja — The First Lady, Hajiya Turai Yar 'Adua, has embarked on an advocacy visit to improve maternal and child survival in the country.

Yar'Adua, who kicked off the campaign in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital recently, donated delivery packs to pregnant women, as well as cash to deserving women to enable them start small scale businesses with the view to empower them economically.

Speaking at the occasion, she explained that the choice of Taraba State, as the first state in her three leg state tour, which will take her to Oyo and Sokoto states, was an indication of the severity of the maternal and child mortality in the states.

Yar'Adua noted that Nigeria had one of the highest maternal and child mortality in the world, adding that the North-east, which Taraba belongs, has the highest maternal mortality when compared with other geo -political zones of Nigeria, attributing poor health service delivery system and inadequate access to health facilities as factors responsible for the high maternal morbidity and mortality rate in the country.

"As Nigeria count down to the 2015 MDGs' target, the health indices cannot be said to be on track, pointing out that that informed her decision to embark on advocacy visit to various states to sensitise policy makers, womenfolk and the public on the need to ensure that pregnancy and delivery do not pose a threat to the lives of mothers and the new born", she lamented.Turai further commended the efforts of the Federal Government for the implementation of the integrated maternal newborn and child health strategy, which is a key initiative towards ensuring universal coverage of maternal, newborn and child health intervention in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Health, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, announced that government has practically demonstrated its commitment and determination to reduce maternal and child mortality by recruiting 2,500 midwives across the country out of which 96 of them have been deployed to Taraba State.

Osotimehin noted thatproviding skilled birth attendants to pregnant women would in no small measure assist in reducing maternal mortality in the country by 50 per cent. He assured that government would monitor the Midwifery Service Scheme programme jealously to ensure its success and sustainability, stressing that government had put machinery in place for its monitoring.

The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Salamatu Hussaini Suleiman, in her remark, said that the issue of maternal mortality in the country calls for aggressive legislation and other actions as well as collective commitment to better health service delivery and infrastructural facilities particularly at the grassroots.