Despite progress in reducing child deaths in the past 25 years, an estimated 2.6 million neonatal deaths occurred globally in 2015 and 99% infant deaths occur in developing countries has more than half of them in sub-Saharan Africa, (WHO, 2012, United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. 2015). Most of these deaths occur in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), of which Nigeria is one. The fact that almost all of these deaths are preventable points to a dearth of adequate facilities in these parts of the world. Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa and seventh most populous country globally contributes the largest number of global obstetric and postpartum deaths (58,000, 19.1% of 303,000) (WHO 2015; WHO 2016), neonatal deaths (261,549, 12.5% of 2,100,000) (WHO 2016) and stillbirths (301,267, 11.6% of 2,600,000).
In rural Nigeria, like other low income countries is a shortage of skilled qualified medical personnel round the clock, thus it becomes necessary for private organizations and individuals to support governments to build the capacity of birth attendants and health volunteers to support the systems. Since the prenatal and postnatal periods are critical times to deliver interventions, FRAAC encourages mothers’ utilization of the continuum (from pregnancy to postpartum) of care in improving neonatal health outcomes especially in rural communities.Â
In line with our motto of caring for the neglected and as part of our thematic areas, FRAAC promotes quality Reproductive, Maternal and Neonatal Health (RMNH) for women and children in rural communities. This will believe helps in reduction of mortality. We also hold programmes that promote mother and child nutrition such as exclusive breast feeding, complementary feeding and immunization of neonates (newborns). Our organization – Foundation for Rescue of Abandoned African Children (FRAAC) provides quality Community-Based Maternal and Neonatal Health Sensitization in urban slums and rural communities.
We promote Quality Community-Based Maternal and Neonatal Health Services in Rural Nigeria.Thus, adopts culturally appropriate education campaigns that advocate and sensitize community members on the need for early and frequent antenatal care attendance during pregnancy as this is important to identify and mitigate risk factors in pregnancy. Our advocacy also encourages women to consult skilled birth attendants for childbirth and for postnatal care. We often focus our interventions to reach women with no education. Also we are aware that the decision making power and delivery choices may be beyond the women, thus, we do seek support of husbands and others stakeholders involved.
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