A Pandemic? : Over 50,000 Women Die Annually Due to Birthing Challenges in Nigeria

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It was sobering to look up figures of annual maternal deaths in Nigeria and to compare these with COVID-19 deaths to-date. According to the report issued for the ninth day of September 2020 by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the country has recorded about 1,070 COVID-19 deaths to date (between February and September 2020, a period of about seven months).  Figures on maternal deaths in Nigeria from 1990 to 2015 indicate that over 50,000 women died annually according to a report, “Maternal Mortality” by Max Roser and Hannah  Ritchie (https://bit.ly/33iYmQL). 

The report shows that in 2015, 58,000 deaths were recorded and from 1998 to 2001,   62,000 women died annually.  Over 1.5m women died in Nigeria between 1990 and 2015 if you sum up the yearly figures.  “A  Nigerian woman has a 1 in 22 lifetime risk of dying during pregnancy, childbirth or postpartum/post-abortion; whereas in the most developed countries, the lifetime risk is 1 in 4900” (https://bit.ly/3mfqn4a).   

 Should the pregnancy-related deaths of women in Nigeria not be classified as a pandemic, given the scale of it? The World Health Organisation defines a  pandemic as “an epidemic occurring worldwide, or over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries and usually affecting a large number of people” (https://bit.ly/3hjl7sD ). Sadly, women have been dying for decades in Africa and other parts of the developing world even though conditions have improved remarkably in the developed economies.

Besides India and Pakistan, three out-of-five countries with the highest number of maternal deaths in 2015 were African: Nigeria (58,000); Democratic Republic of Congo (22,000);  and Ethiopia (11,000). India and Pakistan recorded 45,000 and 9,700, deaths respectively,  Roser and Ritchie note in their report.   Semantics aside, whether we classify these deaths as due to a pandemic or not, “What could be more tragic than a mother losing her life in the moment that she is giving life to her newborn?” Roser and Ritchie ask in their report.  I agree that the situation is truly grim and depressing and we all need to act to stop avoidable deaths. 

On September 3, 2020, Maternal Figures  - a database of maternal health interventions implemented in Nigeria over a thirty-year period was launched with funding support from The Brown Institute of Media Innovation, amongst other funders. "Developed as a research tool for journalists, the database contains verified information including funding sources, contact information, programme reports, and more" (https://maternalfigures.com/)  This is certainly a welcome intervention in the fight to make Nigeria safer for motherhood.

What are your thoughts? How can we further curb preventable deaths?

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Maternal Mortality: the death of either a pregnant woman or death of a woman within 42 days of delivery, miscarriage, termination or ectopic pregnancy providing the death is associated with pregnancy or its treatment. https://bit.ly/3mbCsYj.

Reference

Max Roser and Hannah Ritchie (2013) - "Maternal Mortality". Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/maternal-mortality' [Online Resource]