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UNICEF says West and Central Africa has highest maternal mortality levels in world
DAKAR (TrustLaw) – A Nigerian maternal and newborn health charity has set its sights on ensuring that 5.3 million women have access to personal health records by 2015 in a bid to cut maternal deaths in the West African country, This Day newspaper reported on Tuesday.
“I myself lost a child and nearly died in childbirth,” said Toyin Saraki, the founder of Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBF).
She said it was for this reason that she had committed the last 19 years of her life to finding a way to stop these needless deaths.
Saraki said only 290,000 women in Nigeria, had a personal health record that could facilitate follow-up care by medical specialists particularly during pregnancy.
She said WBF would, in the next four years focus on giving every woman in Nigeria her own personal health record.
The U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says the West and Central Africa, which includes Nigeria, has the highest levels of maternal mortality in the world.
The agency says almost two thirds of maternal deaths in the region occur in Nigeria, Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – which together account for approximately 20 percent of all maternal deaths worldwide.
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