A new documentary, “NOT AGAIN’’, to highlight some of the issues and lapses in maternal health and health facilities in Nigeria was previewed on Monday in Lagos.
The documentary is produced by the Development Communications Network (DevComs), supported by the MacArthur Foundation.
Bolaji Adepeba, Consultant to DevComs, Training and Communication, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the documentary raises awareness on the inadequate attention given to maternal health and how much resource was deployed for the health of women in Nigeria.
“The essence of the documentary is to step up the advocacy against the needless deaths of women resulting from pregnancy-related causes.
“ Nigeria is posting very high statistics as far as the death of women trying to give birth to children in Nigeria is concerned.
“So, we want to highlight some of the issues, lapses on the side of the population, especially concerning our health seeking habit.
“Also, it is to expose some of the lapses on the facilities and system which has to do with how much resources we are deploying for the health of women in the country.’’
On some of the discoveries highlighted in the documentary, he said: “On the part of people who seek good health, there is lot of challenges which has to do with poverty.
“People don’t have the resources to access some of these facilities and some have to do with ignorance; people don’t even know what they are supposed to do.
“Also, we have bad governance which we have also seen as part of what is causing all these problems, whereby, people who are supposed to do something about it didn’t care.
“That is why we had to get women who have near fatal experiences to tell the world about how they escaped death, by either luck or providence, depending on what you believe in,’’ Adepegba said.
He advised Nigerians, especially women to seek health care early.
He also advised governments to fashion ways through which people could access healthcare services from accredited facilities at minimum or low cost.
According to him, health insurance still remains an important key to addressing some of the challenges in accessing quality healthcare in the country.
“On the part of everybody, we have actions and roles to play, either as healthcare seekers or providers,’’ Adepegba said.
Akinoluwa Akinpelumi, Head of Programmes, DevComs, said the video showed the reality of what an everyday woman faced when it comes to child bearing and their experiences when they go for antenatal care.
“It also gives one an idea about our public hospitals.
“We have issues of inadequate or obsolete equipment, lack of drugs, health workers attitude, gaps in knowledge, frequent strike, as well as cultural and religions interference.
“With this documentary, we are saying that as stakeholders, individuals, organisations, there is need to continue to push against the endless death of women and children; our mothers and children must live,’’ Akinpelumi said.
On some of the challenges encountered during the making of the documentary, he said: “It was somewhat difficult for us to get people to voluntarily speak to the camera; some had to get permission from their husbands.
“We would have also wanted to do some shootings in the hospital but because of the government bureaucracy, most medical and health workers did not want to speak to us for fear of being sacked.
“Also, getting some of the officials and stakeholders to talk was difficult; in fact, we had to barge into some of them like the Lagos State Commissioner for Health.
“The commissioner was quite cooperative and offered a lot of information,’’ he said.
Also, Mrs Fausaiat Balogun, Communication and Programme Officer, DevComs, told NAN that the documentary advocated for quality and universal healthcare to save women from dying while giving life.
“We identified that every 12 minutes, Nigeria loses one woman to complications of pregnancy and child birth.
“So, we produced a 30 minutes documentary to highlight the challenges that women face while pregnant and trying to give birth.
“According to the statistics we have, that means that by the time one finishes watching this //MNCHdocumentary , two women would have died of complications of childbirth in one corner of Nigeria.
“We need to actually come together and talk about these challenges and let everybody know they have a role to play in giving women the quality healthcare they deserve to produce life,’’ Balogun said.
NAN reports that in the documentary, Dr Jide Idris, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, identified delay in accessing care and delay in getting accurate care as part of challenges affecting good maternal health.
According to him, other challenges include cultural and religious barriers.
In 2015, 58,000 women were reported to have actually died from childbirth complications in Nigeria, and this figure is expected to keep increasing if no urgent action is taken to stem it.
The documentary can be viewed on youtube http://bit.ly/2EN4V4U (NAN)
