Women to shun child-bearing,
if…
From TONY ICHEKU, Maiduguri
Tuesday, March
6, 2007
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Otive-Igbuzor
PHOTO The Sun Publishing |
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More Nigerian women are dying of causes related to child-bearing,
says World Health Organisation (WHO) report.
Alarmed by government’s
indifference, a reproductive rights activist says that all women in the country
should embargo child-bearing till the issue is tackled head-on. Does it seem far-fetched?
Mrs
Ejiro Otive-Igbuzor, told Daily Sun that it is only a matter
for woman to stop child bearing if government fails to tackle the worsening issue
of maternal mortality.
Otive-Igbuzor, country director of the Centre for
Development and Population Activities (CEDPA), a non-governmental organization,
contends that “government should provide for women free and comprehensive
pre-natal, delivery, and post-natal services. Child bearing is a service to humanity,
why use women like a machine and still make them pay for it? If government refuses
to do something fast, women may be mobilized to go on strike and embargo child-bearing.
Yes, it is possible. Women can stop getting pregnant”
She argues
that though maternal mortality is avoidable, it may become a national emergency,
owing to its worsening incidence.
Maternal mortality, according to World
Health Organisation (WHO), is “death of a woman while pregnant or within
42 days of a termination of a pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site
of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or
its management but from accidental and incidental causes.”
According
to reports, Nigeria contributes 1.7 per cent of world population, but it accounts
for 10 per cent of maternal deaths annually, which translates roughly to one woman
dying every 10-15 minutes. Beginning from1987, maternal mortality ratio has worsened,
growing from 600 maternal deaths in every 100,000 live births to 1,000/100,000
in 2000 to 1,500/100,000 as at 2003.
A graduate of Medical Micro-biologist,
Otive-Igbuzor formerly worked at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR),
Yaba, Lagos before entering the world of women rights in 1991.
Four years
ago, she expanded her focus by embarking on the campaign for reduction of maternal
mortality.
She identifies poverty as a key issue in the fight against
maternal mortality, especially in the North-East. The activist captures the general
problem faced by the campaign with one word:
“Deaf ears. Politicians
hear us and think it does not concern them, but gradually we are making progress.”
Otive-Igbuzor laments that “women are dying in pregnancy and child-birth
because they are poor, uneducated, lack access to factual information, affordable
healthcare services, including ante-natal care and skilled attendants, as well
as education. Just like what obtains in most parts of Nigeria , women of the North-East
are subjected to harmful traditional practices. All of these are preventable causes.”
As politicians mobilize for 2007 elections, Otive-Igbuzor is equally mobilizing
like-minded women to “articulate key demands and action points towards placing
maternal and neonatal mortality reduction on the national agenda for the 2007
elections and its emergent civilian government.”
She recently led
other NGOs to Maiduguri for a North-East Women’s Summit on Elections. The
summit titled “Repositioning Maternal Mortality Reduction as an Election
Demand”, hopes to mobilize women to actively and meaningfully participate
in the 2007 elections and also strategise how to hold elected officers accountable
for maternal health and related demands.
Challenged that such efforts
seem like a drop of water, she replies that with over 500 women present, it is
one of the biggest gathering of women from the North-East. “This is a major
summit and the women have set their agenda, when the politicians come they will
present it to them as a charter in exchange for their votes. One year later, these
politicians elected to offices will be called to account. If they have done nothing
about the charter they endorsed, they will be penalized. Remember the 1999 Constitution
has provision for recall, we can begin the recall of such officials who have done
nothing about our demands.
“Each of the 500 women here have a constituency,
from here, they carry the message to their respective constituencies down to the
grassroots,” she said.
She elaborates further that her NGO is facilitating
the formation of 100 women groups in each state of the North-East to campaign
and enlighten communities on maternal mortality reduction.
“The 100
women group model is a coalition building strategy that galvanizes women around
a common issue, facilitates the formation of proactive coalitions of women groups
and community based organization,” she said the model involves two representatives
from 50 groups coming together to form a body of 100 issue-focused women.
According
to her, maternal mortality could be reduced through rehabilitation of medical
facilities, construction of access roads from rural to urban centres or to places
where medical facilities can be accessed.
More medical facilities could
also be built to make them nearer to women, as well as training more skilled bed
attendants.
She equally wants government and elected officials to be in
the front of drive towards reduction of traditional/cultural harmful practices,
such as early marriage, denial of education for the girl-child and female genital
mutilation (FGM).
The activist argued that proper attention would be given
maternal mortality if it is treated as governance issue, not just as a health
issue.
She further wants respected community and opinion leaders to join
the enlightenment campaign against some traditional practices which has been legitimized
by the toga of religion.
“Some of this so-called religious practices
are really misrepresentations. They are not actually true as their origins cannot
be traced from the holy books,” she said.
What progress has been
made in the campaign? She replies that in 2006 CEDPA held a national consultative
forum on maternal mortality, an event held in collaboration with some committees
of the National Assembly, female and male legislators, politicians and Federal
Ministry of Health.
“It was at this forum that we agreed on a shift
in focus, that maternal mortality, girl-child education are governance issues,”
she affirmed. |
