At the 1st stakeholders consultative forum on Maternal and Child Mortalities in Rivers State, Mrs. Otutu of Touch-A-Life Foundation alerted NGOs and stakeholders that Nigeria is ranked among the five world’s highest ratings on maternal and child mortalities. Prof. Ethelbert Dede and Dr. N. Onyekwere, both guest participants, agreed that the major causes of maternal and child mortalities include: - Poor availability and quality of child health care services
- Uneven and inadequate access to emergency obstetric care
- High fertility (6-8/woman)
- Low status
- Poverty and low literacy
SUGGESTED COMBATING STRATEGIES include: - Implementation of safe motherhood initiatives
- Training sufficient midwives to cover all population groups.
- Child centered survival and development initiatives.
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