COMBATING MATERNAL MORTALITY IN NIGERIA THROUGH COMBINED AND SUSTAINABLE REGULATORY APPROACH

Abstract

Maternal mortality is the death of a woman during pregnancy or labour as a result of pregnancy within forty-two days after delivery or abortion. Death occurring after this time is no longer ensuing from pregnancy. The world is putting a lot of efforts at reducing this menace and is recording a number of successes. But worrisomely, Nigeria still has the second highest rate of maternal death (globally) after India. Factors that have been identified as causing it ranges from poverty, ignorance, illiteracy, religion, socio-cultural and political causes. Despite the seemingly active interventions of both the medical institution and government in Nigeria, the battle is far from being won as indicated by the existing data. There have been a number of socio-medical programmes embarked upon by various levels of government in Nigeria, but because of non-sustainability and non-synthesised approaches (through combined regulations and policies), each effort often crumbles as a new government and political regime comes into power. This paper identifies and classifies the diverse factors responsible for high incidence of maternal death in Nigeria. Proper and clear-cut classification by this paper helps in presenting a clearer picture of the causes and proffering practical and attainable solutions. The workable answer lies in the combination of efforts rather than just combating the various causative factors disjointedly. Efforts can only be combined if there are sustainable regulations and policies that will outlive each political regime. A major contribution of this paper lies in the fact that the paper urges for the creation of holistic and combined regulatory/policy structure to tackle the problem which may not necessarily be medical or socio-cultural alone. This include educational polices, financial and budgetary policies, as well as health policies. Using the doctrinal method, this research uses primarily, works from previous authors in this area, books, articles and academic material are all accessed. Other forms of secondary data such as reports through news and newspapers are also used.