Health stakeholders in Bauchi State have advocated a legislation to compel pregnant women to attend antenatal care and be delivered of their babies in health facilities in the state.
The stakeholders, who made the suggestion at a 2-day programmed tagged, "High Level Engagement Toward Improving Sexual Reproductive Health and Right, Maternal Newborn Child Healthcare and Nutrition," said the move would help to reduce the rate of maternal and child mortality in the state.
Speaking with journalists on the sidelines of the engagement, the executive chairman of the Bauchi state Primary Healthcare Development Board (BSPHDB), Dr Rilwanu Mohammed, said the board discovered that there were many women who attended antenatal care but decided to deliver at home, which he said could lead to complications and contribute to maternal and child mortality in the state.
"The only way to solve this problem is to bring everybody on board and proffer solutions.
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"One of the suggestions made was that the state should have a legislation that will compel women to attend antenatal and deliver in health facilities.
"If a woman fails to attend antenatal or deliver in a health facility, there should be a penalty either by monetary fines or a jail term because she is jeopardising the lives of our children and that of herself," he said.
In his presentation, UNICEF's health specialist in the state, Mr Oluseyi Olosunde, said that three out of 10 women deliver in hospitals representing 31 percent while the remaining seven, which represent 69 percent, deliver at home.
On antenatal, he explained that out of 100 women, 57 attend antenatal care while 43 do not, adding that what to do in order to prevent women from delivering at home and ensure adherence to antenatal activities was the reason for the high-level engagement.
Responding, the speaker, Bauchi state House of Assembly, Abubakar Suleiman, said that the people sometimes need to be forced through a law to access something good for them.
"It has been mentioned here that all these things are their rights and not even a privilege.
"What we are considering is to come up with a law that will force women to adhere to antenatal activities so as to reduce this maternal and child mortality we are facing in the state," he said.
The engagement programme was organised by the state's Ministry of Health and Social Welfare through the Bauchi State Primary Healthcare Development Board with support from UNICEF.
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