Help stop maternal mortality in Nigeria

We are excited to report good news about our project introducing life-saving misoprostol tablets for prevention of excessive bleeding after childbirth, or postpartum hemorrhage (PPH), in northern Nigeria. This project is a collaborative effort with local partner Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital and the Bixby Center at UC Berkeley, and since it began in January 2009, over 450 women have taken misoprostol after delivery to prevent life-threatening bleeding. This means 70% of the deliveries in the project area have been protected from PPH.

There is continued community involvement and commitment to “miso” as a new and effective way to reduce the high number of mothers dying in childbirth in this rural part of Nigeria, where a woman’s lifetime risk of dying from maternal causes is one in 18. In addition to monthly meetings about misoprostol hosted by each village chief, educational posters in English and Hausa about prevention of PPH with misoprostol are displayed in health facilities and around the project communities. Word is spreading quickly about the benefits of misoprostol. Women who live in villages not included in the project have come seeking out the life-saving tablets, citing the posters as the source of their interest.

We are excited by the developments in this project to save mothers’ lives in northern Nigeria and appreciate the support we receive from generous donors committed to reducing unnecessary maternal deaths.

Pictures:

• Nigeria_ABU_women.jpg (JPG)