FCT Inaugurates Taskforce On Maternal Healthcare - THISDAYLIVE

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) administration has empanelled a team of senior health experts to work towards reducing and possibly eliminating maternal mortality within communities in the Capital city under the Maternal and Neonatal Mortal Reduction Innovation Initiative (MAMII).

MAMII is a federal government’s healthcare programme that focuses on 172 high-burden Local Government Areas (LGAs) across 33 states that account for roughly 55 per cent of all maternal deaths in the country.

The programme has been actively rolled out across more than 33 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), working alongside local task forces and primary healthcare centres.

The main target isincrease health facility utilisation and skilled birth attendance by at least 60 per cent, targeting a 30 per cent reduction in maternal mortality nationwide. 

Speaking during the inauguration of the taskforce Mandate Secretary FCT Health and Environment Services, Dr. Dalopo Fasawe, said the FCT administration is determined to ensure no pregnant women or her child dies during and after delivery.

She said, ‘Today is not a day for speeches and talking. It is a day for call to action. All of us standing out here have a deliberate role to play in not even reducing, in destroying and eliminating maternal mortality. This is a task force. 

“A task force means that you have assigned roles, and as long as women are giving birth in the FCT, as long as were here, your role will continue. It is not time bound.

“And as you have heard, the MAMII and all our partners are committed to supporting us to make maternal mortality. mortality within the FCT a thing of the past. So on behalf of the FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, I hereby inaugurate this task force to the glory of God.” 

National Coordinator of MAMII, Dr. Dayo Adeyanju, said the initiative was embarked upon as part of federal government’s vision to drastically crash maternal mortality in the country.

Two years after the commencement of programme, Adeyanju said, “We are beginning to see the results. 17 percent drop in maternal mortality is not a joke in less than two years.”

Adeyanju said from the review conducted by MAMII team on the state of maternal healthcare with the FCT showed that many pregnant women especially in the rural communities were still patronising traditional birth attendants instead of skilled birth attendants for child delivery.

He blamed sociocultural barriers as being responsible for the low patronage of hospital facilities for child delivery which leads to deaths during childbirth.

“That’s the problem. You see these beautiful facilities that are here, that we put drugs, we put medication. 

“They will just come. They will take pop off and do everything here, and they will not come back. This is worrisome, and that’s why we are having high maternal mortality,” he said. 

He charged the FCT MAMII taskforce to take measures to reverse the trend and ensure that more pregnant women patronise the Primary Healthcare facilities where government has made available free child delivery services including cesarean section. 

The inauguration of the taskforce was witnessed by many stakeholders including; officials from the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), National Health Insurance Authority, royal fathers and pregnant women from various communities within FCT.

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