Bleeding is commonest cause of death among pregnant women – Experts

BY VINCENT UJUMADU
AWKA- MEDICAL experts have observed that bleeding is the commonest cause of death among pregnant women in Nigeria, especially in the low income areas, due to lack of the necessary equipment to monitor their situation at the right time.
They made the observation at a lives- saving skills training for health workers for 113 health workers drawn from the 21 local government areas of the state Tuesday in Awka on the use of Anti Shock Garment, ASG, which is a device for controlling obstetrics hemorrhage and reducing the rate of maternal mortality.
The procurement and distribution of the device in Anambra State is a joint venture between the state government and the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF.
Of the 113 participants at the training, only two were conversant with the device which was said to be capable of reducing mortality rate by 23 percent.
In their separate speeches during the two- day training, Anambra State commissioner for economic planning and budget and chairman of implementation committee of MDG programmes in the state, Professor Chinyere Okunna, director of primary health care in the state ministry of health, Dr. Chudi Okoye and a consultant obstetrics and gynecologist, Dr. Emeka Ezeama said the need to reduce the problem that informed the decision of the state government to procure large quantities of ASG for distribution to both the public and private health institutions in the state.
According to them,  “most women die of haemorrhage in low resource set up due to delay in restoring the circulatory volume through timely and adequate blood replacement. ASG is therefore the device that can save the women’s lives during the delay by shunting 2 -3 units of blood to the vital organs, including heart, kidneys and the brain.”
Okunna had said that 196 of the device, which cost the state government over N5 million, have been distributed to various health institutions in the state, adding that more health workers would be trained to ensure that people in all health institutions in the state were exposed to the use of the device.
She said that government would monitor the use of the device in the health institutions that benefitted from it to ensure that they were not abused.
Culled: Vanguard