The Bloomberg Philanthropies Investment’s implementing partner in Nigeria has adopted the Tanzanian Safer Birth Bundle of Care programme (SBBC) toward tackling the maternal mortality problem in Borno.
Prof. Hadiza Galadanci, Nigeria’s lead implementing partner for Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Investment, made this known during the inception of engagement with state government officials and other stakeholders in Maiduguri.
SBBC was aimed at reducing maternal and newborn deaths. It consists of innovative clinical and training tools for improved labour care and newborn resuscitation, integrated with new strategies for continuous quality improvement.
Galadanci said that infant mortality and perinatal mortality have reduced very little in the last three decades.
She, however, expressed concern over the slowness at which the rate was going, saying “right now we have 41 per 1000 perinatal mortality and infant mortality of 63 per 1000.
“So, we have talked about global and Nigeria’s statistics, really there is no doubt that there has been slow progress.
“The pathetic thing is that all of us are doctors in this place. We were medical students, and there are five causes of maternal mortality, and they are still the causes; they haven’t changed.
‘We all know the interventions, we were all taught at the medical school, so why is it that our women are still dying?” Galadanci asked.
She announced that her team would be adopting the Tanzanian BBSC approach to achieving a drastic reduction in maternal mortality in Borno, adding ‘SBBC simply means an assimilation-based and team-based approach.
“That is what we will adopt for all our training. So there will be training within the facility,” Galadanci said.
According to her, with the adoption of the BBSC approach in Borno, there will be quality improvement, data and digital innovation, as well as the establishment of a state-of-the-art facility for caesarean sections, theatres, and the training of health providers, all within two to five years of the partnership.
She said that the team would start by unbundling the bundle, by subjecting pregnant women to screening and picking those to receive the deserved medical attention.
Earlier, Prof. Baba Gana, Borno’s Commissioner for Health, expressed appreciation for the collective commitment the Bloomberg team continued to show toward safeguarding the lives of mothers and newborns.
He, however, reassured the state government’s commitment to tackling maternal mortality with the help of international partners such as Bloomberg.
“As we gather here today, colleagues and esteemed partners, you may recall that Borno State has the highest maternal mortality burden in the entire North-east.
“We have 13 Local Government Areas in Borno State with the highest maternal mortality. In terms of the country, Borno State is number 3 in Nigeria and Nigeria has the highest maternal mortality in the entire world,” the commissioner said.
Gana, however, linked the problem in the state to insecurity, weak emergency response and gaps in early detection and timely management of obstetric emergencies, among others.
He said, despite the challenges, the state was seeing encouraging progress, adding that the state government had instituted the Federal Government’s innovative initiative on maternal mortality across high-burden local government areas, which improved antenatal care attendance, increased skilled birth delivery, among others.
“We have increased primary healthcare functionality,” the commission said.
Gana said that their collaboration with Bloomberg would certainly reduce maternal mortality, improve health infrastructure, enhance service delivery and increase skilled manpower in rural facilities as it were.
He also reaffirmed the state government’s seriousness to transform healthcare delivery, especially in rural communities to prevent deaths and increase accessibility to quality health facilities.
