Efforts by concerned stakeholders to get Oyo State out of the list of states in Nigeria contributing to the country’s high newborn deaths are yielding positive results.
These have been attributed to better mobilisation and participation of the rural communities in the delivery of immunization services.
Report on the Accelerated Action for Impact, a cost effective intervention initiative being carried out in three local government areas of the state with high neonatal deaths, showed that the interventions, supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund, are reducing the worrisome deaths.
The three local government areas identified for the AAI intervention project out of the six listed local government areas in the state with high rate of newborn deaths are- Ibadan North East, Saki West and Ibarapa North.
Stakeholders say the AAI initiative is yielding positive result in checking newborn deaths in Oyo State because of the involvement and participation of community leaders in those LGAs through house to house awareness visit to the women on the need to immunise their children against preventable childhood killer diseases like pneumonia.
The awareness also sensitises them on the need for them to patronise the Primary Healthcare Centres whenever they are pregnant.
The accelerated action-impact initiative is driven by UNICEF to curb the high burden of preventable newborn deaths in Nigeria.
This objective is achieved through increased awareness on the importance of life saving interventions like immunisation, early initiation of breastfeeding ,exclusive breastfeeding, optimal infant feeding practices, Vitamin A supplementation , deworming and other low cost intervention approaches that could boost newborn survival in the country.
At a two-day South West media workshop with the theme: “Improving Health Outcomes for Children in Oyo State through Accelerated Action for Impact”, organised by the UN agency in Ibadan recently, stakeholders gave a vivid account on how AAI is changing the narrative of newborn deaths in the three identified local government areas of the state through community participation and ownership of the initiative.
Also, a field trip to Iwo Road Primary Healthcare Centre, located in Ibadan North East local government area, also provided more evidence on the impact the intervention had made so far.
In her presentation, the state’s immunisation officer, Mrs Eunice Niyilola revealed that the three local government areas had witnessed a sharp rise in immunisation coverages which were extremely low before the AAI interventions were introduced.
Niyilola said: “Before the interventions, Ibadan North East, Saki West, Ibarapa North Local government areas had over 2000 children who were not reached with immunisation.
“This intervention reduced to 510 children in these LGAs.
“For Saki West local government, immunisation coverage jumped from 20 per cent to about 66 per cent and for Ibarapa North local government, it moved from 17 to 67 per cent. The most outstanding is Ibadan North East local government which moved from about 56 per cent to 102 and down to 94 per cent because of the involvement of the community who worked at the target populations,’’ she said.
Also, Dr Jola Moses, a Medical Officer of Health in the state, confirmed the reduction as he puts the total number of unimmunised children in Sarki West LGA at 5682 before the AAI started.
“This 5682 has been reduced to 501 because demand for service was stimulated. Also, the number of still birth reduced from eight per month to three per month since the interventions started,’’ he said.
UNICEF in a new report on “Newborn Mortality’’ released in 2018, ranked Nigeria 11th position on newborn deaths globally.
According to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, (MICS), 2016/2017, Oyo has 42 percent of newborn deaths.
However, based on current evidence, AAI is positively reducing the worrisome but preventable deaths in the state.
The stakeholders attributed the high number of newborn deaths in Oyo State before the intervention to illiteracy, cultural barriers, irregular attendance at infant welfare clinic, use of concoction, pregnant women patronizing quacks, among others.
Presenting the achievements of the AAI interventions to the workshop participants, Nutrition Officer, Oyo State Primary Healthcare Board, Dr Khadijat Alarape, said figures from the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week 2018, showed that Vitamin A coverage moved from 85.4 per cent to 88.3 per cent.
“Deworming increased from 73.2per cent to 77.2 per cent. From MICs 2017, exclusive breastfeeding was before 30.4 per cent but now 49.5 per cent.
“Also, early initiation of breastfeeding was very low before, but it had now improved. Stunting was 24.4 before but now 23.0 per cent; wasting moved from 7.6 per cent to 5.7 per cent while underweight decreased from 17.4 per cent to 11.0 per cent,”, she stated.
The meeting revealed that some members of the Community Development Associations in those intervention LGAs volunteered for a house to house mobilisation and sensitisation visit to the women to properly empower them with the right information on simple child survival strategies.
One of the community leaders, Alhaji Busari Mamunu, explained the reasons why the house to house visit is very strategic.
“Many pregnant women do not want to go to the hospital but we go from house to house to talk to them not to have their babies at home, but at the health centre,” he said.
Also, affirming the reduction, the Chief Community Health Extension Worker at Iwo Road Primary Healthcare Centre in Ibadan North-East LGA, Mrs Jolasinmi Adebola told our correspondent during a field visit to the PHC that through increased awareness creation by the community leaders, many women were now bringing their children for immunisation.
Adebola revealed that since the intervention began, the number of women bringing their newborn for immunisation had increased from 56 to 78 monthly.
She also confirmed that exclusive breastfeeding rate in the area had increased from 103 to 189 as more women were now embracing the practice.
A nursing mother, who just delivered a baby boy at the PHC, Mrs Ifeoma Godwin shared her experience with our correspondent during the field visit.
She said: ” Since I gave birth to him eight days ago, the health workers have been educating me on how to sit and breastfeed him without difficult.
“Immediately I gave birth to him, they told me to put him to breast, telling me that early initiation is important for the survival of my baby and that I should do exclusive breastfeeding. They assured me that exclusive breastfeeding will make my baby not to be sick. During my antenatal also, the health workers here took time to talk to me about the importance of immunisation and that I should ensure that my baby completes his immunisation schedule.”
When asked how she got to know about the health facility, Mrs Godwin said: “It was the community leaders in my area that told me to come here for antenatal and delivery, assuring me of a safe delivery because it has skilled birth attendants unlike what was obtainable in traditional homes that I was using.
“ I thank God for their visit, because I have gained a lot by giving birth here.”
Speaking on the importance and impact of AAI in the reduction of neonatal deaths, UNICEF’s Health Specialist, Akure Field Office, Dr Adebola Hassan said the approach is cost effective and also promotes community ownership of immunisation programmes in the state
Hassan noted that UNICEF desires to reduce mortality of newborn in the state to 50 percent by deploying life saving interventions like immunisation, early initiation of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding through community mobilization and sensitization.
According to her ,a reduction in newborn deaths in Oyo state, will help in reducing the overall rate of newborn deaths in Nigeria currently at 39 per cent.
She said the interventions became necessary after it was revealed that Oyo State was performing poorly in newborn health in absolute numbers.
“Oyo ranks 3rd out of 10 states contributing to absolute numbers in neonatal deaths in Nigeria”, she said.
Going forward, continuous sensitisation on knowledge attitude and practice of exclusive breast feeding is required to sustain the ongoing progress in Oyo State while greater emphasis should therefore, be placed on community mobilization and participation to achieve the targeted 50 percent reduction of newborn deaths in the state.
