Nigeria is among the high priority countries with high preventable maternal mortality rates throughout the country. In Spring 2016 graduate nursing students at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland worked on establishing Childbirth Survival International (CSI) Nigeria as their capstone project. The students developed a comprehensive start-to-launch of Saving Lives at Birth program in an underserved community in Nigeria to help reduce preventable maternal and newborn mortality through advocacy, community sensitization, involving and engaging men, and use of low-cost low-tech interventions at the grassroots level. The students presented their capstone project and hand over to CSI, which occurred on Saturday, May 7, 2016 at Morgan State University.
In January 2017, Seth Christopher Yaw Appiah, a protégé under the Next Generation Global Health Security Network Mentorship nine months pilot program picked up from where Morgan University students stopped and led efforts on the ground in Nigeria, working closely with his mentor, Professor Tausi Suedi and in-country partners. CSI maternal health program in collaboration with University College Hospital (UCH) labor ward unit will contribute to national and local efforts to save lives at birth and help improve child survival in Ibadan, Oyo State and advance immunization and workforce development, part of the Global Health Security Agenda Action Packages. CSI and UCH will mobilize resources to reach women in Ibadan community with childbirth kits and information on importance of delivering with a skilled birth attendant, educate mothers on importance for their children to receive immunizations, train midwives to use childbirth kits and reduce spread of infections, exchange knowledge to young girls and improve maternal health in Ibadan community.
CSI’s saving lives at birth program in Ibadan, Oyo State is expected to reach at least 200 pregnant women and their newborns, a dozen midwives, and several community leaders and members. We anticipate continued collaborations to accelerate efforts to reach the unreached with health services and information.
