Infant mortality: Ogun government replies to most recent MICS report

The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) reported that Ogun State has the highest infant mortality rate in the southwest of Nigeria. The Ogun State Government has taken note of this report’s publication.

The Bureau of Statistics, with assistance from partners, conducts the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) every two years to close the data gap for tracking the state of mothers’ and children’s health.

According to recent numbers from the study, Ogun State in the southwest of the country has the highest rate of fatalities among children between the ages of 0 and 5 years and postnatal care for infants.

However, the state government, in a statement issued on Saturday in Abeokuta by the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Olutomi Coker, cleared the air on the recent MICS results released in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Coker stated that the state administration is aware of the health status of women and children in the state, but that the reality is not as portrayed in the publication. According to her, the report also claimed that the sample size was insufficient for the majority of indicators in the state, making the report a poor depiction of the true picture of newborn health in the state.

“Our attention has been drawn to a publication rating three southwest states as having high infant mortality as released in the last MICS disseminated recently in Ibadan. While the Ogun State Health Ministry acknowledge the result of the survey, we would like to state that we are monitoring the health situation of both our women and children in the state. All efforts are being deployed to ensure Ogun State continues to rank within one of the lowest in infant mortality in the southwest.

“The survey is conducted every two years and MICS 5 results for Ogun State was considerably low compared to the recent results which came as a surprise given the various interventions we have put in place as an administration to improve the health outcomes for our mothers and children”, she noted in the statement.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which occurred during the survey’s reporting period, was a significant change in the health system, according to the Health Commissioner. which severely hampered the nation’s healthcare system,

Dr. Coker continued by saying that a recent analysis of our data indicates that 40% of pregnant women in Ogun State chose to give birth in a traditional setting, which could have an effect on the result for both mother and child.

She said that the administration isn’t just sitting on its hands when it comes to the aforementioned issue and revealed that new mechanisms and technologies have been put in place to confront this unfavourable tendency.

She cites several innovations, such as the systematic reorientation of expectant mothers to embrace delivery at public health facilities through enrollment of over 50,000 expectant mothers and children under the age of five into the Basic Health Care Provision Scheme across the 20 Local Government Areas; training of health professionals, such as doctors, midwives, and CHEW on helping newborns breathe; TBA orientation on identifying danger signs in pregnancy, newborn resuscitation, and early referrals; His Excellency Prince Dapo Abiodun MFR’s recent release of equity funds as payment of insurance premium for over 4,345 pregnant women to encourage facility delivery and improve child survival indices.

She continued by saying that the state government is also facilitating the start of the Hub and Spoke project to encourage early referrals from our TBAs to secondary and tertiary health facilities, as well as the renovation and equipping of primary health care centres across the 20 LGAs to create a conducive environment and deliver high-quality health services at the grassroots level.

The Ogun State Primary Healthcare Board recently hired 55 midwives and 48 medical officers to supplement the existing workforce at the primary health care level, according to Coker. Plans are also well underway for the construction of a mother and child unit with a dedicated foetal medicine centre at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH), Sagamu.

The Commissioner acknowledged the concerns of the state’s citizens on the report, particularly those of mothers and caregivers, but added, “We believe that with the above innovations and interventions, the infant mortality would be expected to be on a downward trajectory”.

Coker stated, “The District Health Information System ( the national health information database), will be constantly interrogated to monitor the State infant mortality trends and appropriate response will continue to be deployed in a timely manner.”