Maternal and child health and family planning in Nigeria

Abstract

In Nigeria the maternal and child health services available provide care to only a small percentage of the population, who are mainly those living in the urban areas. Over 85% of the population live in rural areas where medical facilities and coverage are lacking. As a consequence, the maternal and infant mortality rates for Nigeria as a whole remain very high. The problems facing Nigeria involve the inadequate provision of trained medical and paramedical personnel and the inefficient utilization by the community of the services provided. In a study performed in Lagos in 1970, the inefficient use of services was demonstrated by the fact that although 53% of a sample of 526 ill children were seen at the Casualty Department of the Teaching Hospital within 2 days of the onset of their illness, 12% were not seen until 2-3 weeks had elapsed since the onset of their illness. With the high infant mortality rate of over 150 deaths/1000 live births which still exists in the rural areas, mothers are unlikely to accept family planning on its own as a desirable contribution to the improvement of their health and their family's health. The experience of the family planning clinic of the Department of Community Health seems to show that noneducated women accept family planning services more easily in urban than in rural areas. The experience of the Lagos Family Planning Health Clinic has shown that a community approach to the provision of comprehensive maternal and child health and family planning service can be most successful in improving the health status of women and children in an urban setting. Use of nurse practitioners to provide care in this service has helped to increase the efficiency of the provision and delivery of health care. The provision of the new cadre health worker has commenced with the 1st training program initiated in 1979.