THE state of maternal and child health in Nigeria is enough to declare a national emergency in the health sector, only if the public really know their plight.

Medical and media practitioners in the country said on Tuesday that their deaths are not recorded at the registry and the burden is also under-reported to create adequate awareness for effective action. Yet, they are dying.

The picture, according to 2012 Save the Children report titled: "Nutrition in the First 1, 000 Days: State of the World Mothers", revealed that Nigeria is one of the worst countries in the world to be a woman, child and access good health.

The reasons are: no fewer than 52, 000 women die annually due to pregnancy and childbirth related cases; that is, six women die every 10 minutes. One in every seven children also dies before age five, while no fewer than 284, 000 babies die annually within 28 days after birth. In all of these, malnutrition stands out as one out of every three Nigerian children is malnourished, the report shows.

Senior Progamme Adviser of Save the Children Nigeria, Dr. Olanrewaju Olayemi, at a workshop on current Integrated Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (IMNCH) issues in Nigeria, held at Ilorin, Kwara State, said that the rate at which mothers and children are "dying needlessly" is unacceptable.

"Though the gory statistics is not exclusive to Nigeria, but to emerge 123 out of 165 was not satisfactory. Apart from the United States of America (USA), no other country in the world has abundant resources as Nigeria, yet we are going backwards while other countries are catching up with us," he said.

He noted that currently, Nigeria is the 9th country with the highest risk to women, with one in 23 dying from pregnancy related causes. Meanwhile, one death in a decade in Norway (the best country to be a mother) would be a national disaster.

Also, only 39 per cent of all births in the country are attended to by Skilled Birth Attendants (SBAs), while less than one in 10 women uses modern methods of contraception.

Olayemi noted that gender imbalance remained a major issue that contributed to the plight of women in the country. "A girl in Nigeria can be expected to live (on the average) until she is 53, but that same girl can be expected to still receive eight years of formal education against 18 in Norway. In Nigeria, women earn only 42 per cent of what men do for equal work and they hold only seven per cent of parliamentary seats."

He, however, observed that there was little improvement in the new findings compared with the past statistics, but "at less than four per cent in eradicating mortality. More is needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). That is why a country like Ghana may meet the MDGs and not Nigeria."

Olayemi added that there are several simple measures to easily reverse the trend, but of paramount importance was the need for the media to bring this worrisome plight to the public and set agenda on how best to collectively tackle them.

"There is recommendation for exclusive breastfeeding at least for the first six months of life. This boosts chances of survival by at least six times. Good nutrition for the child and mother from conception and for at least two years after delivery to help the child. The right diet supplement that is rich in iron, vitamin A and Zinc. There is also the need for investment in frontline health workers to reach the vulnerable women and children. All of these, among others, are issues that should jolt our attention as media practitioners," he said.

Programme Manager of Devcoms, Akin Jimoh, also observed that the country has so many programmes in place, but their quality at effectively addressing the challenges should be of interest to the media.

Reiterating the importance of the media, Jimoh stressed that the journalists are the best positioned to cause attitudinal change by creating awareness on the state of affairs. "The media is known to set agenda for people on what to think. Exposure to media messages, disseminated through a variety of channels is considered as one of the most effective way to change attitude and behaviour."

Apparently in agreement with other speakers, Moji Makanjuola of Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) expressed the need for a strong system in the health sector. She was worried that the current Nigerian constitution has little for healthcare, and has no health provisions that is justiciable, coupled with the fact that the National Health Bill has not been signed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan.

She urged fellow practitioners to be relentless at bringing the maternal and child health issues to the fore and also engage the political class on what needed to be done. "We need to see ourselves as stakeholders in national development, without forgetting that health is at the centre of everything that we do," she said.

It was the consensus of participants at the three-day workshop that the media must lead in the action to be taken, to tackle the national maternal and child health crisis in the country.

Save the Children is an international organisation working in 120 countries to safeguard the rights of children.