Nigeria: Adamawa Govt Flays Increase in Child Deliveries at Home

Adamawa State is currently addressing increase in births at home due to poverty, religious and cultural factors among women in the state.

The permanent secretary, planning commission in the state, Dr Mary Paninga, stated this while presenting a report on the overview of conditions of women and children at a workshop organised by the UNICEF.

“A number of women give birth at home especially in the rural areas. 60 percent of women give birth at home due to several factors; poverty, cultural and religious practices,” she said.

Paninga noted that the state government was putting a lot of efforts to roll back some of the disturbing statistics in the areas of poverty reduction, improving healthcare delivery, and enhancing infrastructure across all sectors in the state.

“Government is doing a lot in the area of poverty reduction that is why we have the poverty alleviation agency so that women can take care of themselves when it comes to that issue and a lot of awareness programmes are being put by the state government,” she said.

She noted that the state had recorded tremendous successes in curtailing infant mortality rate by about 39.5% although she said a lot needs to be done to eradicate the menace.

Mr Opiyo Nixon of NCO-CFS UNICEF Nigeria, said the workshop was organised with a view to having a clear understanding and harmonising the success of the UNICEF intervention with regard to the conditions of women and children in the state.

“We feel it is important to come together after the government did a situation analysis in order to understand how children are been affected and to support the government on how to address some of the observed challenges,” he said.