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Nigeria Ranks 3rd With Premature Birth Globally – Mrs Bagudu

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The wife of the Kebbi State Governor, Dr Zainab Bagudu, has revealed that Nigerian sits in the third position on the list of top ten countries with high rate of preterm birth of 773,600.

Dr. Bagudu made this disclosure on Friday in Abuja, National Association of Nigerian Paediatric Nurses (NANPAN), paid her a courtesy visit.

Mrs Bagudu, who frowned at the rating, lamented that a lot of preterm related death often occurred due to lack of sophisticated equipment that would ensure proper care for the babies.

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She however noted that it was important and high time for the nation to rise up to its responsibilities by coming up with innovations and policies that would help in saving the lives of number of neonatal death.

“Prematurity is the leading cause of newborn death worldwide and if we can save some of these babies we will definitely record more economic impact in our country.

“The resources in terms of human and material that is expended on premature birth and babies dying every year is enormous and we can do something about it,” she said.

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Mrs Bagudu identified one of the easy ways to restore the lives and ensure better health for premature babies to include Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC), adding that it will enable the baby cuddle with mother in the absence of incubators.

The National President of the NANPAN, Mrs Olubunmi Lawal, said that the reason for the visit of the association to Mrs. Bagudu residence is to seek her support on the association’s upcoming annual national conference slated for Nov. 13 to 17 in Enugu.

Mrs. Lawal stated that the conference was convened to come up with modalities to ensure the survival of large number of premature babies.

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According to her, it is also part of pre-event activities for the commemoration of the International Day of Preterm Birth billed for Nov. 17.

“Premature babies are vulnerable hence we are here to pay advocacy visit on Her Excellency in order to promote the survival of preterm babies.

“We are also paying advocacy to tell the world that the association is significant when it comes to improving the survival of preterm babies and newborns as a whole.

“Preterm babies need a skillful care and if you are not trained on it you cannot do it effectively,” Lawal said.