Free Surgery Services for indigent Persons

Association of Rural Practitioners of Nigeria (ARSPON) in conjunction Hova's Place Hospital & Festac Town has announced its 2013 Surgical/Medical Mission Outreach to hold between July 24 and 28, 2013.

This programme is designed and targeted at providing free surgical services to indigent and less privileged persons.

During this programme, the body will offer consultations to several hundreds while one hundred (100) persons that will be selected from the pool of applicants will benefit from its free surgeries services on Prostrate, Fibroid, Thryriod, Lumps, Hernia, Appenddix, Hydrocele, Virginal Prolapse etc..

The programme event are as follows: Programme of Events: Screening: 15th- 23rd July 2013;
Selection: 24th July Surgeries: 25th - 27^th July, 2013 at Hova's Place Hospital & Clinic 5TH AVENUE, T-CLOSE, HOUSE 23, FESTAC TOWN. LAGOS.

To make this year’s outreach a resounding success and achieve its key objectives, they are appealing to kindhearted individuals to support this humanitarian service with cash donations and publicity so that those in rural areas can get the information and benefit from the programme.

Interested donors can contact Godwin (08030800469 or Chikezie (08167340179 or email chyyke@yahoo.com; godwineteng@gmail.com; hovasplacehospital@yahoo.com

No woman should die unnoticed in Nigeria again – PATE

Antenatal Check-up

IN reaffirmation of the centrality of women’s health to human development, the death of a woman from maternal causes is to become  a reportable occurrence in Nigeria. Currently, Nigeria has an average maternal death rate of over 600 deaths per 100,000 live births.

Disclosing this development at the end of a meeting with the Nigerian Country Caucus during the just concluded 3rd Global Women’s Conference held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Minister of State for Health, Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate, said the intended move is one of the mutual agreements for stemming the tide of maternal death in the country towards attainment of the Millennium Development Goal, MDG 5.

Pate, who held a ministerial forum with Nigerian Civil Society leaders under the theme “Country Caucus and Policy Dialogue: Advancing Commitments to Reproductive and Maternal Health” told Good Health Weekly of his conviction that  maternal deaths should be notifiable.

“I strongly agree with the forum that maternal deaths should be notifiable. It is a positive call to action, not about sharing blame, but to learn what to do to fix the problem so that it does not happen again.”

“No woman should die unnoticed. When a woman dies from maternal  causes, it should be reported.  This will enable lessons to be learned. This way, civil society should help us to bring such instances to the fore ,” Pate argued.

The goal of the 2-day country caucus was to identify shared priorities and opportunities for advancing commitments to maternal, newborn, and reproductive health throughout the participating countries that  included Nigeria, Ethiopia, Rwanda, India and  Indonesia. Others were South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.

The forum was aimed at providing political leaders with a platform to engage in dialogue with civil society and reinforce mechanisms for on-going collaboration, joint planning, and information-sharing in each country.

A Woman on a Countdown

Maternal mortality

Giving a rundown of the outcome of the forum,   the Minister of State for Health said Nigeria shared successes with the Midwifery Services Scheme and the SURE-P  Pre-maternal Health and Child programme which has so far reached  1,500 facilities, and one million women in the last year, while  the Maternal Mortality Ratio has reduced by 47 percent in 2012 compared to 2009 in  facilities of intervention.

“At the Ministerial forum, we were able to learn from successes of other countries, there were learning points and there is a lot more that we can do to go forward.

“In contrast with the past, it was acknowledged that even in the face of notable challenges, there are areas in which Nigeria is doing reasonably well, and this has been acknowledged.”

Further, Pate argued that the role played by President Goodluck Jonathan in enabling provision of the life saving commodities, was acknowledged, particularly for making them available for the child, mothers and newborns.

“This is just the beginning, and there is a lot more work ahead for the country in tackling the MDG 4 and 5 agenda towards 2015. “But we have proven that it can be done. It was great to be here to share that, and  also to learn from others, for instance  Niger had a school for husbands and Senegal  presented a model for pushing commodities,  and

“In general there is an alignment. Civil Society and the government are working in the same direction. We discussed the issue of data. Six years ago, people were giving all kinds of estimates about maternal mortality, it was only in 2008 that we had good household survey that showed us  true picture of maternal mortality.

“Right now we are having another survey in 2014 that will be giving us a more robust data about what has been done in the last five years.  But that we should be more fact based, more open in sharing information, both civil society and government and should have a forum to take stock with CSO to take stock of progress.”

Pate who noted he was a bit skeptical at first, said his feeling was that more of such issues should be discussed in Nigeria. “I also mentioned to the caucus that when you look at the situation in Nigeria, relative to other countries, we are endowed with quality human resources which, sometimes, does not always translate into better outcomes, and the challenge is out of execution, not talk, but actually getting things done. But it would be fair  to things are getting better where they are so that people can go and check.

So in the context of what we shared, there are the facilities where we have posted Midwives and the women attending, and their telephone numbers, and the commodities that are being bought.

“That is very real, and that people should be able venture and check. Go out on the field, that is the way to make progress. Let us not take the bad apple theory.  If you look at the system and try to fix it, you’ll find you  cannot fix a complex system overnight. You fix it by picking on an area, working hard on it over time, and the entire system will feel the impact of that change.

“That is what we have done. We have human resources, primary health care, commodities and stated to do a few things here and there. There is improvement, it hasn’t solved everything, but there is improvement. “We shouldn’t take other people’s narrative, we should tell our own story. Every country has its problem, but Nigeria is in its stride. It hasn’t solved all its own problems, but these problems can be solved.

Culled from Vanguard newspaper

Expectant mothers not visiting ANC clinics regularly – WHO

ONLY half the number of pregnant women in Nigeria and other  countries in sub-Saharan Africa are receiving the minimum number  of  four Antenatal Care, ANC, visits recommended by the World Health Organisation, WHO, to ensure the well-being of mothers and newborns.

This development, which is contained in the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, Report 2013, revealed that in 2011, only 49 per cent of pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa received at least four antenatal care visits during their latest pregnancy.

An Expectant Mother

In 2010, the Federal Government introduced the Midwifery Service Scheme, MSS, and deployed over 4,000 Midwives to 1,000 health facilities nationwide.

According to the Report, health care during pregnancy can save lives, just as good quality care during pregnancy is fundamental to the health, well-being and survival of mothers and their babies.

ANC visits should include tetanus toxoid vaccination, screening and treatment for infections, and identification of warning signs during pregnancy.

During such visits, pregnant women are also tested for HIV; if positive, they receive help and guidance in living with the virus and avoiding transmission to their babies.

The women receive intermittent treatment to prevent HIV infection, thereby averting adverse outcomes for mother and baby if infected during pregnancy.

In Nigeria,  commencement of antenatal care within the first 14 weeks of gestation is widely accepted as early and  booking after the 14th week of pregnancy is regarded as as late.

Good Health Weekly  gathered that most women either register late for their antenatal clinics because of a belief that there are no advantages in booking for antenatal care in the first three months of pregnancy, or as a result of the myth that  antenatal care is viewed primarily as curative rather than preventive

Experts say early commencement of antenatal care by pregnant women as well as regular visits, has the potential to affect maternal and foetal outcome positively. It provides education and counselling on expected physiological changes, the normal course and possible complications of pregnancy, labour and puerperium.

Calling for adoption of a population moderation management system, President/CEO, Association for Reproduction and Family Health, ARFH, Professor Oladapo Oladipo, said Nigerians ought to be having only the number of children they can cater for.

“There are many poor people in this country.  Let us look at a situation where one man has one wife and three children, and there is another who has three wives and 12 children. There will be a situation where there is transfer of burden from the latter to the former who has moderated his family,” Ladipo asserted.

Further, he noted that there is always a health risk to the woman who has too many children. “We know that fertility can relate to development because if families have fewer children per woman, then they have fewer mouths to feed.  We can see at the family level that having fewer mouths to feed could help to reduce poverty and free more money to educate or help each child. And many analysts, including UNFPA analysts, have done research that shows slower population growth also reduces poverty at the national level.”

In his argument, Ladipo said Nigeria could  endeavor to meet its National Policy on Population and Sustainable Development, NPPSD, targets and to help Nigerian families that already want to use modern contraceptives, which would increase the nation’s modern contraceptive prevalence rate, CPR.

“Fertility affects health mainly because certain types of births are exceptionally risky.  ‘Risky births’ are defined as births that are too closely spaced, or when the mother is too young or too old, or when the mother has too many children.  All of these could cause death or injury to the mother and child.

On challenges of family planning services in the country, he said 1 in 5 married Nigerian women has unmet need or child spacing methods or tools. “A woman expresses desire to space or limit births, but is not using any method to do so. This is more than six million couples who are not receiving services.

Lower fertility puts less strain on our healthcare system and health workers, including midwives. Under the Low Fertility Scenario, number of midwives required would increase more slowly.”

Culled from Vanguard newspaper