I am afraid…’: Pregnancy becomes nightmare for many women in Nigeria’s conflict-hit north

KONDUGA: Aisha Muhammed was in the third trimester of her pregnancy when she had the convulsions and high blood pressure of eclampsia, a leading cause of maternal death. Her village’s only health clinic had no doctor, and the only medical help was 40 kilometers (25 miles) away in one of the world’s most dangerous places.

More women die giving birth in  than anywhere else in the world, according to the World Health Organization. But Muhammed managed to reach the city of Maiduguri and have a cesareanRoads are closed by fighting. Many doctors and other health workers, as well as aid organizations, have fled.

In an attempt to make up for the lack of US funding, Nigeria Even before these developments, Nigeria had over a quarter of the world’s maternal deaths in 2023 — 75,000 — according to the WHO.

At least one in every 100 women dies giving birth in Africa’s most populous country, which faces chronic underfunding for health systems that cater to 220 million people.Health workers say it is increasingly difficult to recruit doctors and others, especially outside of the relatively safe state capital, Maiduguri.

“There have been times when there were (advertisements) but nobody is willing,” said Dr. Fanya Fwachabe, Borno state sexual and reproductive health manager at the International Rescue Committee, one of the last international aid agencies still operating in the region.Aid workers described local mothers dying because they could not reach care. Once relatively peaceful communities have again turned into garrison towns for the military, and some healthcare systems have collapsed.Falmata Muhammed went into labor suddenly in 2021. With no hospitals in her village of Bulabilin Ngaura, she and her husband set off to Maiduguri, 57 kilometers (35 miles) away. But she started bleeding and delivered the child en route, stillborn.

She said the mental anguish still weighs heavily. Now the 30-year-old is pregnant again. She has since moved to Magumeri, a larger town whose major hospital was burned in a Boko Haram attack in 2020. Now it has only a mobile clinic, which is not equipped to assist with childbirth.

The Borno government acknowledged the problem and cited the insecurity. Authorities first need to ensure it is safe for health workers, Abubakar Kullima, chief medical director at the Borno State Hospitals Management Board, told the AP.

Doctors in Borno can expect to make about $99 to $156 a month.

“If you count five people away, you know a woman who has probably had an issue with maternal morbidity or mortality,” said Jumoke Olatunji, a cofounder of the Lagos-based Alabiamo Maternal and Child Wellbeing Foundation. Maternal morbidity refers to the health problems caused