CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction
1.1
Background of the Study
Giving birth is
something in which mankind and animals are equal….But rearing the young, and
especially educating them for many years is something which is a unique gift
and responsibility of a man. It is for this reason that it is important for
human beings to put emphasis on caring for children and the ability to look
after them properly, rather than thinking only about the number of children and
the ability to give birth. For it often happens that man’s ability to give
birth is greater than their ability to bring up the children (Julius Neyerere cited in Centre for Disease Control
1983).
The above dictum could not
have been more germane than in a 21st century Africa where many families
grapple with the challenges of malnutrition, infant mortality, road accidents,
armed robbery, sexually transmitted diseases, maternal mortality, kidnapping,
unemployment, hunger, civil strife, among others. One of the subtle but most
frightening of all is the issue of maternal mortality which incidentally is one
of the biggest problems facing the developing areas of the continent, including
Nigeria. In fact, Lindroos and Luukkainen (2004), in the Antenatal Care and
Maternal Mortality in Nigeria, were moved to ask a rhetorical
question that if maternal mortality is about 800 -1100/100,000 like it is in
Nigeria, in a country where the population is over 120 million it means about
54 000 deaths every year. That is only a bit under 10% of all maternal
mortality cases in the world per year.
Raphael (2008)
corroborates the foregoing statistics as he asserts that Nigeria’s maternal
mortality rate is the second highest in the world, after India -1,100 maternal
deaths per 100,000 live births. The country is home to 2 percent of the global
population, but 10 percent of all maternal deaths take place there. Only about
60% of pregnant women have access to prenatal care in Nigeria and even fewer
have access to family planning. These sad and scary statistics have been blamed
squarely on the Nigerian government’s inability to provide access to
information on family planning and contraception, two issues very closely
related to maternal death (Centre for Reproductive Rights, CRR, and the Women
Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, WARDC 2008).
Clearly, the health
benefits of family planning associated with child spacing and the use of
specific methods can play a major role in protecting the lives of infants,
children, women and the family as a whole on the continent of
Africa.
However, Nigeria is the
most populous country on the continent and among the ten most populated nations
of the world. Its national population is about 140 million and has been
projected to reach 250 million by the year 2015 (Population Reference Bureau,
PRB 2004; National Population Commission 2006). The large increase in size of
the population is mostly a function of past and present levels of fertility and
mortality in the country. In Nigeria, child spacing or the timing of every
birth, including the first and last, can improve the likelihood of survival and
of good physical and emotional health for the entire family at all stages of
life.
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