By Hassan Zaggi
With careful observation, a pregnant woman can know whether the baby in her womb is healthy or not, an Obstetrician, Prof. Oladapo Ladipo, has revealed.
Speaking at a one-day summit organised by the Association of Nigeria Health Journalists (ANHEJ) in Abuja, weekend, the expert disclosed that a healthy baby is an active baby.
The summit which was supported by the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health at Scale (PACFaH@scale), anchored by the Development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC), was with the theme: ‘“Re-echoing Voices for Family Planning Funding and need to make Maternal Health Services Free by incoming Political Leaders”’.
The expert disclosed that if a pregnant woman wakes up and throughout the day the baby in her womb could not move up to ten times, then, she should rush to the hospital to checks.
“A healthy baby is an active baby. We call it count to 10. We developed it when I was in UK as a resident doctor.
“If a pregnant mother wakes up in the morning, between six am and six pm, she should count up to ten movements of the baby. Once she counts 10 movements of the baby within that period, the baby is healthy.
“If by 6pm she has not counted 10 movements of the baby, she should go straight away to the hospital for thorough examination.
“It means that the baby is not fine. A baby that is short of oxygen will be sluggish. The mother can monitor herself,” Prof Ladipo explained.
He further revealed that: “During the process of labour itself, the heartbeat of the baby is being monitored. The obstetricians and the midwives need to monitor the heart rate of the baby. The mother too during pregnancy can monitor that to avoid any complication.”
Prof. Ladipo, however, lamented that Nigeria has the monopoly of Virginal Fistula condition in the world and therefore, called for massive education of teenage who are sexually active in order to prevent them from having unwanted pregnancies by using approved contraceptive methods.
“Nigeria has the monopoly of Virginal Fistula condition in the world. It should not be so. It is better to educate teenage girls when they are sexually active to prevent pregnancy by using approved contraceptive method,” he said.
Speaking earlier, the representative of the Minister of Health, Dr, Osagie Ehanire, commended the Association of Nigeria Health Journalists for organizing the one-day summit, noting that the event represents a necessary step towards getting the about-to-be-elected political actors to be properly primed to keeping faith with the country’s commitment to sustained increase in use of contraceptives by Nigerians of reproductive age across the country.
Represented by the Deputy Director of Family Planning Logistics, Pharmacists Uguchukwu Alex, the Minister explained that since his pronouncement in April 2021 that family planning information, services and commodities are free at all level of the public health care delivery system, “the demand for family planning information, services and commodities has been increasing exponentially leading to significant increase in funding requirements for procurement of needed commodities and other interventions which is increasingly becoming difficult to keep up with.
“Of course, this increase has resulted in stock out of the family planning commodities which in turn is negatively impacting the achievement of our key family planning targets.
“The Federal Ministry of Health, as part of the solutions has developed and is currently disseminating the National Guideline for State-funded Procurement of Family Planning Commodities which purpose is to promote domestic funding for procurement and distribution with substantial contributions from the thirty-six states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
“The adoption and inclusive implementation by the national and sub-national level Governments, of Nigeria’s Family Planning Blueprint, FP2030 Commitment as well as other critical family planning documents equally form part of the solutions to the challenges facing the national family planning programme.
“Again, the Federal Ministry of Health also realised that the potentials of the private sector are not being harnessed adequately, hence the development of the Private Sector Engagement Strategy on Sexual and Reproductive Health. Government is hoping that the key Private Sector players will embrace this strategy and contribute to the expected success.”
