We are committed to reducing maternal mortality — Oyo Govt

The Oyo State Government has restated its commitment towards the reduction of  matenal morality rate in the state.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Bashiru Bello, stated this on Wednesday in Ibadan while playing host to an advocacy team on National Guideline on Self-Care for Sexual, Reproductive and Maternal Health in Nigeria.

Bello said that Gov. Seyi Makinde’s administration is working hard at providing enabling environment for the reduction in the index of maternal morality across Oyo State.

He said that the state government would continually improve health status of the citizens and all residents of the state.

The commissioner charged stakeholders in the health sector to make quality service delivery their watchword.

He also urged residents of the state to develop passion for acquisition of basic guidelines needed for self-care to reduce cases of marternal mortality in the state.

Earlier, the Director of Reproductive Health, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Kayode Afolabi, while speaking on the benefits of the project, emphasised the need for citizens to appraise implementation of self-care in various states.

Afolabi sought for the support of government for the advocacy team with a view to reducing maternal death in the state.

He also called for continuous engagement of private facilities in the project.

“Self-care is an approach that will enhance universal health coverage and ensure each individual’s right from family unit to the community and be aware of certain health conditions.

“This will also enable individuals to contribute in improving their health conditions and sustain various challenges in this regard.

“We are particularly looking at reproductive health, maternal health as well as newborn health; this is because we have very high mortality rates across the country and we must adopt various strategies to reduce it,” he said.