United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said about 51.5 per cent of pregnant women in Gombe State still put to birth at home, posing threat to child survival.
The health officer of UNICEF, Bauchi field office, Olusheyi Olosunde, made the revelation during a media dialogue on keeping every child alive and ending child mortality in Gombe, Bauchi and Taraba states, organised by UNICEF and held at Crispan Hotel, Jos, Plateau State.
According to him, the data released last month by the National Demographic Health Survey (NDHS), showed that more than five out of 10 women in Gombe equivalent to 51.5 per cent give birth at home, contributing to child’s death due to lack of immunisation and other healthcare services.
He added that in Bauchi, 68.9 per cent pregnant women do not deliver at hospital while in Taraba, 67 per cent give birth at home.
The UNICEF’s health officer further disclosed that the statistics indicated that postnatal care do not reach 55.1 per cent of newborns in Gombe, 76.1 per cent in Bauchi and 67 per cent in Taraba while about three out of 10 newborn children do not receive immunisation in the three states.
Earlier, the UNICEF’s communication officer, Opeyemi Olagunju, lamented that child mortality is a major public health challenge in Nigeria, with approximately 120,000 children under the age of five dying each year, emphasising that many of such deaths are preventable.
He said the goal of the media engagement was to ignite a meaningful conversation about child mortality in the three states with a view to raising awareness of the root causes of child mortality, its socio-economic and health impacts, and the urgent need for collective action from a broad range of stakeholders.
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