IN a country where Maternal mortality rate is above One-thousand to One-hundred thousand live births, it is expected that everything possible will be done by government at all levels and relevant stakeholders to mitigate the menace. Data from the 2023 report by the United Nations reveals that almost 28.5% of maternal deaths, globally, happen in Nigeria.
This shows the lack of respect for the woman reproductive right which is also a fundamental human right. This right includes access to healthcare, information on health including reproductive health and family planning, sterilisation, HIV/AIDS and women adolescent reproductive health.
Others are; having information and the woman knowing her rights in cases of sexual violence against women, maternity rights and benefits, as well as protection in pregnancy.
Infringement on these rights do not, however, start recently, it has been part and parcel of most cultures, traditions and emboldened, somehow by religion. These factors have continually supported and encouraged partriachy by making men to exert absolute power and authority over women including non inclusion of women’s reproductive right.
From the1984 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development, to several other conferences and meetings, including the approval of the National Health Policy in 2010, the government of Nigeria had continually pledged to be committed to the operationalisation of the reproductive health concept and to the achievements of those targets. However, all efforts seemed to be ineffective as cases of maternal maternity continue to worsened with little or no reproductive information available for the woman.
In Waru, a suburb of Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, FTC, 43 year old Fatima Muhammad, narrates her delivery experience, which was the eleventh out of twelve, in 30 years of marriage.
“I’ve 11 children out of 12 pregnancies. One night, while I was already 10 months gone with the 11th pregnancy ( I usually carry my pregnancy for 10 months and 9 days), I had a terrible headache,then I took some medications that would lower my Blood pressure, shortly after,I felt the urge to pass some urine, but when I made attempt to go to the toilet, I became very dizzy,then I went back to the bed, instantly,i realised a strange
sound in my stomach,then I felt something moved and disconnected from my body. I couldn’t sleep until morning, then I told my husband and sought for his permission to go to the hospital. He didn’t argue, he said I should go.
I went to the hospital alone and was asked to undergo a scan. I did, and the scan showed that the baby had died. Painfully,it was 5 days to my EDD. Afterwards, my Blood pressure was checked and it showed 180/????,
“The doctor asked if I should be operated upon to get the baby out, but I told him I needed to go and ask my husband, first. My sister, that was the beginning of another journey. We went round Abuja the following day from 7am to 4pm, but we couldn’t get a remedy. The medical bill was high and any attempt to induce the me for the child to come out,proved abortive. Already,the baby had started decaying after some days and my whole body was swollen”.
“We then resorted to a local medical attendant, who advised that the Blood pressure be managed and lowered before the delivery issue is addressed, if not ,it could lead to my death, also. When that was addressed, and it was time for the operation, as tradition demands, my father’s consent has to be sought,too, before the procedure began, which he consented to”.
“I don’t know what the name is, but he cut the baby into pieces, before pulling the parts out. While that was going on, I fainted. To the best of my knowledge, the procedure began around 9:00 am, but by the time I was revived,it was around 3pm”.
“There,I made a vow that,I’ll never get pregnant again.
“The local medical attendant asked, what I wanted,I told him I needed contraceptive for 20years, but he said he’ll not administer that unless my husband gives his consent. Sadly, when my husband was asked, he said he wanted more children. There,I told him he should marry another wife. He then said I should be given for some years so that I could rest and continue.
I tried to connive with the medical attendant to help me remove my womb completely,but he insisted that he was not going to do anything without my husband’s consent.
“After a year, even with the contraceptive,I became pregnant again. Although,there was no complications, but I didn’t like it. After I was delivered,I asked the midwife in the hospital to help me remove my womb,but she said she will not do that without my husband’s consent. I went to a different Primary healthcare centre where I met a different healthcare giver who listened to me and gave me the contraceptive,but not without arguement, because she said it must be with my husband’s consent.
It has been 8 years,now and I feel good.
In all,I had 12 pregnancies, one stillbirth and 11 eleven children.
It’s also noteworthy that my husband still doesn’t know that I’m on contraceptive because he insists that he still needs children.
Zainab Ibrahim is 34 years old and has been married for 15 years. Zainab lives with her husband and children in Kabusa, a suburb of the FCT.
“When I got married, my desire was to have as many children as possible, but as the economic realities began to dawn on me couple with medical complications, the idea of having more than 3, which I already had at that time, fizzled out”. There’s always no enough finance to get good medical attention. Even when I feel unwell, I’m often left alone to carry my cross including taking care of the baby, buying diapers and others. There’s no care or empathy from my husband. All he wanted was children and more children. This continued until I had five children. When I was pregnant with the sixth child I had complications and I made up my mind that come what may, I’m done with child bearing.
“The day I began having contraction,my husband was seated in the same room,but was busy with his phone, he didn’t even pay attention to what I was saying. Suddenly,I saw blood coming from my vagina I told him,but he ignored me. I then went to my neighbour who accompanied me to a traditional birthday attendant who I registered with, earlier, because there was no money for hospital. So, the neighbour informed her husband who in turn spoke with my husband and persuaded him to come with us to the traditional birth attendant.
“I put to birth afterwards, but the bleeding increased and I was beginning to feel feverish, I complained, then passed out. By the time I woke up,I saw myself in a hospital, admitted and later underwent surgery.
“After the surgery,I was told that the situation became more complex during the delivery. The traditional birth attendant had pressed my tummy with the help of her daughter when it became difficult for me to push and that led to disruption of something in my stomach.
“Even before the complications, I had been praying for a situation that will cause me to stop giving birth,but none had presented itself until this surgery. Now my womb is completely removed, though my husband isn’t happy about it,but I’m fine.
Aisha Ali, is 30 years old and has been married for 10 years. She had six conceptions, but lost three to stillbirth. Aisha, a resident of Abuja Municipal Area Council, said she is ok with the number of children she has because of the complications that always come with her pregnancies. Aisha disclosed to me that she had during one of the deliveries sustained an injury that led to am almost perpetual internal pain in her leg.
However,her husband always reminds her that he needs more children. When asked what her response is, she said she didn’t care.
“My life and health matter most to me. He can marry more wives if he needs more children. I’m fine. I want to live long and take care of my children”.
The Mandate Secretary, Women, Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, Dayo Benjamins -Laniyi said the FCTA Administration has a new face with the present administration. According to her, the Administration has for the first appointed a Mandate Secretary, Women, to ensure that all issues related to women especially on their reproductive rights are addressed.
She noted that the Mandate Secretariat is platform that’s dedicated to addressing not just needs,but most importantly setting up and domesticating the policies for gender based violence, Violence Acts and the entire reference of the gender action for women from the community grassroots, to the full subnational intervention.
“The Nine Mandate Secretary assignment crosscuts when it comes to giving women frontline position and redemption from traditional, cultural practices that have not only proven harmful,but have in many ways diminished and rendered destitute the hope of women.
Benjamins-Laniyi highlighted that the FCTA has made provision for free insurance for pregnant women while scaling up advocacy to sensitise on data capture and interventions through programmes such as rollback malaria.
She stated that when it comes to malaria, those who are most implicated are mother and child noting that the greatest numbers of mortality comes out of malaria hence the need for intense and deliberate education for women on the need for consistent use of treated mosquito nets that it’s not just about being treated with panadol,but you’ve got to be tested for malaria”.
“When it comes to this very disturbing statistics, flip it the other way round because the renewed hope agenda is not just about the rail, roads and other infrastructure, it’s also about the security of the woman as the basis for the total security of the Federal Capital Territory.
She added that the Mandate Secretariat is a complete intervention and a complete celebration for the women of the FCT.
She further said that for the first time, all of the National programmes for the intervention, the donor partner funding and collaboration now has a women secretariat they can work with which according to her, before now it was only the national interventions with a few NGOs.
“Right now we can get to the 62 wards, through the 17 Chiefdoms, 16 Area Councils, our Mothers who are the Royal matriarchs, the wives of the Area Council Chairmen, the gender desk officers in the 9 Secretariat, the Community Women leaders, right now we’ve become organised collection, driving for the advocacy ” leaving now woman behind”.
The Mandate Secretary, Women, FCT, however, said the challenge lies in articulating it fully, from Policy to performance and being able to create the networks.
For her part, a retired Midwife, Mary Augustine, who’s resident in Kurudu said girl- child education and intense sensitisation especially for mothers are key to curbing the rate of Maternal mortality.
According to her, most parents give out their children at a tender age without their consent and without properly educating them hence they do not have an Idea for family planning.
“Even when they have complications and we tell them to stop, they’ll tell us that they cannot stop because they are afraid of their husbands”.
She said most men threaten their wives with either divorce or marrying more wives hence the women will rather continue to give birth even at the expense of their lives.
“Everybody should be sensitised from the fathers , mothers, traditional rulers,religious groups and even the girls and boys. Some of these women contact Vesico Vaginal Fistulae,VVF, because they’re too young and can’t make decisions for themselves, others even die”. Augustine lamented.
- This investigation is for the GENDER, THE AGENDA project for Gender Strategy Advancement International (GSAI) supported by the Wole Soyinka Center for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), and the MacArthur Foundation”.