President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa Mrs. Toyin Saraki has commended the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for donating training equipment to school of nursing and midwifery accross Nigeria. Mrs Saraki received the donation of Merck Anatomical Arm Models from the UNFPA in Abuja on behalf of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria yesterday.

A statement by the Wellbeing Foundation said the equipment would go a long way in “increasing investments in midwifery and supporting the training of midwives, scaling up access to skilled midwives”.

The statement quoted Mrs. Saraki who is a global ambassador to the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) as saying “it is imperative that we act now to improve availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality of midwifery in Nigeria.”

She said although statistics show that only 40% of Nigerian women give birth with a skilled birth attendant present, “with investments such as this from the UNFPA – which will facilitate the effective training and continuous development of midwives, Nigeria will be able to save the lives of the thousands of Nigerian women who die each year from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.”

All accredited Schools of Midwifery and Departments of Nursing in Nigeria will benefit from the donation in a country where 14% of women give birth alone – with the majority of these births occurring in rural regions.

Statistics shows that Nigeria currently accounts for 13% of all global deaths of children aged under-five and 14% of global maternal deaths. Mrs Saraki said “many of these deaths could be easily prevented with better access to adequate health facilities and skilled midwives.”

No Comments

Leave a Comment

Visit Us On TwitterVisit Us On FacebookVisit Us On YoutubeCheck Our Feed