Stillbirth: Every baby deserves a chance — Sen. Banigo

Ipalibo Banigo, Chairperson, Senate Committee on Health, has called for improved maternal and child health services, emphasising that “every baby deserves a chance to live.”

Banigo made the call in Abuja on Thursday during the official launch of a stillbirth dashboard, aimed at enhancing visibility and accessibility of stillbirth data for better decision-making to reduce preventable stillbirths in the country.

Supreme News reports that the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN), through its International Research Centre of Excellence (IRCE), implemented the project titled “Improving Nigeria’s Capacity to Use Data on Registered Stillbirths for Decision Making and Planning (SPEED project).

The 15-month project, which started in September 2023, focuses on leveraging Nigeria’s stillbirth data to inform policy decisions.

It is a collaboration between Vital Strategies Inc. Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Data for Health Initiative and Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH), and has presented findings to improve evidence-based decision-making in addressing preventable stillbirths.

The lawmaker said “every baby deserves a chance to live. These babies have a destiny to fulfil. The real-time insights from this tool will help us achieve significant reduction in maternal and newborn mortality.

“I am committed to ensuring that agencies remain accountable in turning this data into impactful actions.”

She reflected on her previous work in Rivers, where collaboration with IHVN and other stakeholders helped to reduce HIV-related maternal deaths.

She cited the removal of barriers to Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) as model for addressing health challenges.

The senator commended the maternal and child health dashboard, which gathers data from primary healthcare centres, and stressed the need to incorporate data from secondary and tertiary institutions to provide comprehensive understanding of the challenge.

She committed to legislative oversight to ensure healthcare providers were held accountable for turning data into action, stating that stillbirth data would be included in future health facility assessments.

The senator also stressed the importance of forward-thinking legislation to meet Nigeria’s evolving healthcare needs.

She advocated for a multi-sectoral approach to improve maternal and child health and called for community engagement in health awareness campaigns.

She underscored the importance of community health committees in identifying and addressing grassroots health challenges.

Ms Oghome Emembo, the Principal Investigator of the SPEED Project at IRCE-IHVN, called for urgent data-driven action, stating that addressing stillbirths is a shared responsibility for the nation’s future.

She said “the event marks a pivotal moment to utilise data and evidence to create strategies that actively reduce stillbirths.

“This requires system and process changes with focus on tangible results.”

She described stillbirth as a national economic and social loss, emphasising that each stillbirth represents a huge loss for the country.

Mr Oyewale Oyedele, the Data Lead at IHVN, shared findings from the SPEED project, revealing troubling trends in the country’s stillbirth rates and underscoring the need for urgent policy intervention.

He said “the SPEED project reports a national Stillbirth Rate (SBR) of 24 per 1,000 total births, double the target of 12 per 1,000 births set by the ‘Every Newborn Action Plan’ (ENAP) for 2030.

“Over the past decade (2014–2023), Nigeria recorded more than 404,000 stillbirths, with Katsina State registering the highest incidence at 45,034 and Ekiti the lowest at 1,047.”

Oyedele highlighted significant regional disparities, noting that the Northwestern region carries a disproportionate burden of stillbirths.

He added that “Katsina and Zamfara reported stillbirth rates of 53 and 52 per 1,000 births, more than twice the national estimate. In contrast, Ogun and Osun states met the ENAP target.”

He pointed out that 61 per cent of stillbirths in the country are macerated, with Delta, Adamawa and Oyo states contributing most to this trend, suggesting gaps in antenatal care and early detection of fetal distress.

Mr Edward Kombo, the Development and Health Information Lead at IHVN, noted that the data primarily comes from Nigeria’s Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs), which could limit the comprehensiveness of the data as it excludes secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities.

He said “this limitation should be acknowledged when analysing or interpreting the data.”

Meanwhile, Supreme News reports that Thursday, Sept. 19 is National Stillbirth Prevention Day, dedicated to raising awareness about stillbirth, a largely overlooked public health crisis that has profound impact on families across the nation.

Experts have highlighted that stillbirth risks are higher in rural areas, with limited access to hospitals and prenatal care, with racial and economic disparities further exacerbating the issue.

They also stressed the need for increased national attention and preventative measures.

This is because losing a baby in the final weeks of pregnancy causes lifelong pain for families, yet the issue remains under-discussed, with many parents learning the term “stillbirth” only after experiencing the tragedy.