Emmanuel Kehinde, Ilorin
Dr prosper Okwonkwo,Executive Officer of AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN) Public Health Initiative on Saturday advocated for better attention on the Midwives Service Scheme (MSS).
Okwonkwo made the call in his paper presentations at the 2022 Isaac Oluwole Memorial Lecture organised at the 38th Annual Scientific Conference of Association of Public Health Physicians (APHPN) in Ilorin.
The theme of the conference was titled:”The Imperatives for Strengthening the Nigerian Health Systems”.
According to him, the sheme is designed to mobilize midwives, including newly qualified, unemployed and retired midwives, for deployment to selected primary health care facilities in rural communities on maternal health.
He observed that the scheme was intended to improve the maternal, newborn and child health outcomes in Nigeria by closing the geographical gaps as well as the urban and rural differences.
Okwonkwo noted that the program performance in 2010, a year after implementation, revealed a positive trajectory towards achieving the set goals.
“The following maternal health indicators showed that general overall improvement over the baseline, though with some geographical variations such as family planning visits and pregnant women with antenatal visits,” he said.
The Public Health Physician added that the role of birth attendants in the provision of basic and comprehensive obstetric care became urgent with the high level maternal morbidity and mortality, particularly among the undeserved and marginalized communities in Nigeria.
He disclosed that the narrative suggested potential for success, however some challenges affected the sustenance of these initiatives such as paucity of retention of qualified midwives posed a challenge to the success of the scheme.
“Particularly in the areas of most need including North East and North West, especially after the completion of their one year mandatory pre-registeration participation in the scheme, ” he said.
Okwonkwo also observed lack of adequate funding of the scheme and that 60 percent of states in the country did not keep to the terms of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and the midwives were owed for several months.
The expert therefore urge the APHPN to assist the government at all tiers to find lasting solution to the problem.
