ANTICIPATED ARRIVALS AND MATERNAL MORTALITY
I planned to do this posting on the 29th of June as it happened to be the birthday of Theodora, my cherished daughter exactly five years ago. Hers was a pregnancy I enjoyed so much. One of the reasons why I had so much fun with this pregnancy was because I had been been looking unto God for a daughter. I had had two boys earlier in my marriage and we all desired a baby girl.
It was five days past my EDD. Theophilus my husband and I had arrived and strolled into the teaching hospital at about 8:30 am pulling my luggage like we just arrived a hotel. We were so calm and the officials were in doubt that I was in any labor.
The hospital being a university teaching hospital has high patronage because the bills and charges were at government subsidized rates and I was on the queue. When checked, I was already 6cm dilated. Immediately I stood up from this bed, I felt a fluid flow down my trousers. It was then that the very intensive contractions began. I walked down to the room where I was given a bed and in minutes as few as 15-20, I beckoned on the nurses to please check on me so that I could push out that child as I was in intensive pain that short period.
At about 9:30 am, she arrived and I felt like I was the most important personality on the face of the earth.I think childbieth makes a woman feel special.
Theody, as I fondly call her has been a source of pleasure from that moment on.
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| 2 hrs old Theody |
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| Theody clocked 5 yesterday |
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| Classmates and teachers celebrates her. |
Maternal Mortality/Birth in Nigeria.
Eric's mother like most mothers in Nigeria always feel safer to register with the University Teaching Hospitals or Government Hospitals than to register with private practitioners because their charges and rates are heavily subsidized and as Birth Complications that could lead to death of either infant or mother or even both of them is still very prevalent. The Universities always had on duty a team of consultants ready to attend to any complication. Emphasis is that there are a number of consultants. Private practices are limited in consultants.The bonding practice reccomended between mother and child, skin to skin is not practiced as babies are first washed before they are brought to mothers.
In these hospital also, fathers or relatives are not allowed to witness this great delivery.of their child, so, mothers miss the soothing comfort of anyone at all as she goes through the birthing of her child.
The birth of Eric is one that everyone heard the story because it sounded like a tale and everyone wanted to hear it again and again.
There was no time for epidurals at all. Labor pains stated to 6:30am, luckily got to the hospital and by 7:20am, she had had her baby. She was shown her baby and baby was immediately tagged his name.The next time she saw him, he was dressed and one of the best they could do is latch children on breast as a means of bonding.
According to WHO," Maternal mortality is unacceptably high. About 800 women die from pregnancy- or childbirth-related complications around the world every day. In 2010, 287 000 women died during and following pregnancy and childbirth. Almost all of these deaths occurred in low-resource settings, and most could have been prevented"World Health Organizatoin, May 2012 http://www.who.int/en/.
Mertanal mortality is still very prevalent in Nigeria. birthing experiences, just this month alone, I know about two peoaple who died of childbirth Meanwhile, this is a tip on the iceberg compare to what we are about to see..
Educ 6160 has also given me another platform to view and see what I never would have known.
FITSULA: is unknown in the West for nearly a century. Mostly teenagers who tried to deliver their first child at home, the girls failed at labor. Their babies were lodged in their narrow birth canals, and the resulting pressure cut off blood to vital tissues and ripped holes in their bowels or urethras, or both.
"This is what is happening," the doctor said. "Nobody will believe it." The fistulas point to the broader plight of millions of African women: poverty; early marriage; maternal deaths; a lack of rights, independence and education; a generally low standing. One in 18 Nigerian women dies during childbirth, compared with one in 2,400 in Europe, the Population Fund says. A larger share of African women die in childbirth than anywhere else in the world NYT,Sept 2005
Were it widely available, the United Nations agency states, a $300 operation could repair most fistulas. But Mozambique, with 17 million people, has just three surgeons who consistently perform those operations. Niger, population 11 million, has but six, the organization reported in 2002NYT,Sept 2005.
The difference
It is amazing that I live in this same country and I am only learning of this, Sometimes I thimk the figures are inflated though, just to get the attention of the developed world for help.
the location of this practice which is the north is politically and religiously sensitized to reject western education because according to them, they do not want the white man's religion and oppression.
The western Nigeria is seeking better practices to the point of the standard in the developed world and they are getting there' for those who can afford it.. I do hope this publication revelation has improved as it is several years ago.I am not happy at all to learn that this happens.
Reference:
World Health Organization, May 2012 http://www.who.int/en/.
Nightmare for African women Birthing injury and little help New York Times, September 2005 www.nytimes.com2005/09/28africaninternational/african/28
