By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
As individuals, corporate organisations, policy makers or politicians, taking the right step can reduce maternal mortality rate or save a woman from dying at child birth.
This was one of the lessons from a short movie presentation, titled: ‘Mrs X’ at the Devcoms Advocacy Breakfast meeting for Media Executives on Child Spacing, held on Thursday 15th February at I Care Conference Centre, Kaduna.
At the epilogue, the narrator who drew his experiences from real life situations in the 1980s said that “As individuals, we can lobby for better care of pregnant women. As policy makers and politicians we can strengthen human rights, put in place policies and make resources available.”
He explained that the scenario that played out was a true picture in the society, especially in developing countries.
In the presentation, Mrs X Die, was described as someone from a low income family.
She died in a small hospital at eight months pregnancy.
She arrived the hospital bleeding, needing a caesarean section but with limited resources, it was done three hours late.
It narrated that if she had arrived the hospital earlier, she may have survived.
It took six hours to collect enough money for her transport to the hospital.
An enquiry after her death, showed that from her family, women were deprived of a lot of necessities as men were favoured.
The enquiry showed that if she had been treated as well as her brothers while growing up, or given equal education, her chances of survival would have been better.
She had planned to give birth at home, but complications from bleeding, led her to the hospital.
If she had gone to the hospital earlier, she may have been saved and had a chance of taking care of her children.
“Mrs X could be anyone, your mother, sister, wife or even you.”
At the meeting were media executives from Kaduna based media houses, representatives of Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiatives (NURHI), Development Communications Network (DEVCOMS) and Africa Media Development Foundation (AMDF)
