I love babies but I hate pregnancy. Too much discomfort lugging around a whole human being inside you; sniffling, sneezing, spitting and not being able to lie on your tummy for at least 30 weeks! The clumsiness is what many women hate. I hate the way I hated my favourite things, like I could not stand the smell of the perfume I wore on my wedding day just because I was pregnant. I could not stand the smell of my wedding cake which I was determined my son must taste. I craved spicy ‘street rice’ which I promptly threw up after eating.
The aches, cramps and sleepless nights… but when my son arrived, so healthy, so beautiful, I forgot all the vomiting. As I held him in my arms, I felt so proud. I felt like I owned the world. I counted his toes, fingers, kissed his forehead. I was excited. I didn’t know how to feed him but I still attempted to. I noticed I was weak, a bit shaky, sweating from just the effort to breastfeed…
That was some 20 something years ago but I still remember vividly. No mother forgets. And I pray that all women who are waiting to hold their babies will do so this year in Jesus name. Pray and put more ‘man hours’ on the job.
Why am I telling you this? Because I am sad that many women in Plateau State, as reported by the Daily Sun sometime ago, are dying after childbirth. Because there are still women there opting for home births. I read the full-page story with pain in my heart. The one I found most painful was that of the woman who had a set of twins but died a few days after. She was bleeding but her family thought the ‘thing’ would stop on its own.
She was weak, yet she wasn’t taken to the hospital. And she died, leaving her babies. And there was the one who died on the naming ceremony day. All that discomfort and pain, only to die when your joy arrives? The children those women gave their lives for would never know them. They will see photographs, hear stories but will never know the warmth and comfort of a mother’s loving embrace.
Just because of poverty or ignorance or both.
Pregnancies and childbirth are mysterious, miracles even science is still marvelling at. The thin sack called uterus that gets thicker as it expands instead of getting thinner. The whole human being eating, drinking and moving around in that sack inside a woman. The process of child birth itself has never ceased to amaze us, has it?
And so many things can go wrong as a baby makes its way into the world. The poor little thing may decide to ‘dance into the world’, presenting its buttocks instead of its head. Or it could decide to ‘step out in style’, putting its pretty feet forward. The mother’s blood pressure could reach for the skies. A portion of the placenta may refuse to leave its comfort zone in the uterus and gets retained. I experienced that once but the doctor ‘convinced’ the placenta its time was up in there.
Sometimes the uterus ruptures.
Most times, childbirth in the hospital is smooth. But even there, sometimes things go wrong and death comes visiting the maternity ward.
Child birth is always a risk. Even with the best laid plans, things go wrong. But home births are dangerous because almost all the time almost everything can go wrong. Even in developed countries women who give birth outside of a clinical setting  know that they put themselves and their newborns at risk.
In far away developed Australia, Caroline Lovell, a passionate advocate of home births died on January 23 after her own home labour. The 36 year old mother  went into cardiac arrest while giving birth to her second daughter, Zahra, at her home.
Mrs Lovell had made arrangements for a private midwife to assist with the delivery, but unknown complications during the birth caused her heart to stop. By the time paramedics arrived at her home, she was critically ill.
According to the American Pregnancy Association the risks associated with at-home delivery include fetal distress, cord prolapse, hemorrhage and high blood pressure.
Maternal mortality is a major health issue in Nigeria, In 2010, the 
UN World Population Prospects and the Institute for Health Metric Reports put the country’s rate at 545 per 100,000 on maternal mortality. In December 2013, the  Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, said the figured improved  to 224 deaths per 100,000 live births. If you ask me, that is a difference between six and half a dozen. That figure is still way too high.
In Plateau state, ignorance and poverty is causing avoidable deaths, worsening the sad statistics.
Does the state have Primary Health Care Centres? Does it do enough awareness in its rural areas to ensure the safety of its pregnant women? Somehow, I think the state is not doing enough. There is too much death as it is in Plateau. We should not let those who escape night marauders and murderers from the hills die while producing leaders of tomorrow. Governor Jang, please find out what your colleagues in Delta and Ondo states are doing differently to keep death away from pregnant women, even in their remotest villages.
This is a Save Our Soul call.
Last published February 2, 2014.

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