Unsafe Abortion Responsible For Maternal Deaths – Expert

Access to safe abortion and post abortion care is vital to significantly reduce maternal deaths in the country, a Consultant Gynecologist and Obstetrician with Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital in Kaduna, Dr. Joel Adze has said.

Speaking at a workshop on post abortion care organized by Partnership for Transforming Health Systems (PATHS2) for nurses and doctors from selected health facilities in the state, Dr. Adze noted that unsafe abortion is a major cause of maternal death stressing that it contributes between 13% - 20% of maternal deaths in Nigeria.

According to the service quality improvement and reproductive health advisor with PATHS 2, Dr. Amina A. Dorayi, tens of thousands of women die worldwide annually due to unsafe abortion.

“Where abortion is illegal or where safe abortion services are costly or hard to find, complications from unsafe abortion are common,” she added.

She pointed out that about 59,000 women in Nigeria die annually from pregnancy related complications and childbirth, she noted that PATHS 2 supports post abortion care projects designed to make treatment safer and more responsive to the needs of women.

“For every maternal death, 30 others suffer long term disabilities, it is unacceptable that women die in the process of bringing children to the world,” adding that quality post abortion care includes emergency treatment, contraceptive counseling and supplies, follow up and referral to other reproductive health services.

According to one of the facilitators at the training, Dr. Gajere Gyawiya Johnathan, Head of Maternal and Child health Department, General Hospital Kafanchan, Nigeria is only 2% of the world’s population but accounts for over 10% of the world’s maternal deaths in child birth.

“There is an estimate of 33.89 million women in Nigeria between the ages of 15-49 and the overall risk of a woman dying from childbirth in Nigeria is 1 in 23.

Source: Daily Trust