|
Home :
Where We Work : Nigeria
Nigeria
Increasing use of high-quality emergency obstetric, newborn and family planning services
A focus group discussion session with older women.
With funding from USAID/Nigeria, ACCESS designed and is implementing a three and half-year program focused on increasing the use of high-quality emergency obstetric, newborn care (EmONC) and family planning services in three Nigerian states. Beginning with two local government authorities (LGAs) in two states the first year and expanding to additional LGAs and states over time, ACCESS is contributing to the reduction of maternal and neonatal mortality, as well as USAID’s strategic objective 13: Increased Use of Child Survival and Reproductive Health Services.
Improving EmONC is one of the key ACCESS strategies for reducing maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality—both dire problems in these predominantly rural and poor states. Skilled attendance at delivery in the North West is the lowest of all 6 zones, and less than 1 percent of births are attended by a doctor. The total fertility rate in the area is 6.7, with only 3 percent of women using modern contraception.
The ACCESS program in Nigeria has succeeded in reaching thousands of women and newborns at both the community and facility levels with interventions focused on antenatal care (ANC), safe delivery care, EmONC, “kangaroo mother care” (for low birth weight infants), postpartum care, family planning for healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies, and quality improvement. This approach—which also involves working at the policy level to improve the service delivery environment—is called the Household-to-Hospital Continuum of Care (HHCC), and encourages communities and health care providers to work together and use simple, cost-effective interventions. The HHCC addresses all three delays associated with maternal and newborn deaths by improving household and care-seeking practices, empowering the community to create and maintain an enabling environment for increased utilization of EmONC services—whether public or private—and improving the quality of care provided at the peripheral and district levels.
|
