Female folks are essential companions that men cannot do without. A society that is bereft of women is not worthy of being regarded as a complete setting. No doubt, they are seen as helpers, problem sharers, solution providers and life partners for male folk. All these attributes might have triggered the popular saying that women "are salt of the world".

It is against this background that the female is accorded a special recognition across the globe. The United Nation, in its unbiased posture, advocated the need for 35 per cent affirmative action in the representation of women in decision making across strata of the society. The essence of this is not only to be in congruence with gender sensitiveness but also accord them their due recognition like their male counterparts.

While male folk might be free from stigmatized tendencies, the female counterpart has not always been that lucky. Apart from social syndromes such as VVF, HIV and AIDs, a common phenomenon, which female usually suffered preponderance of stigmatizations, another is maternal morbidity.

The reason is that they are always at the receiving end. Day in, day out, women give birth to new babies. But before delivery, they always carry baggage of social stigmas. One of them is pregnancy. The process of impregnating woman might come with derivable pleasure by the opposite sex. During the period, both sexes beam with smile having joyful moment, after which there is more to it than mere smile or laughter.

The moment the female takes in, nine months period of pregnancy is like consigning her to death row. The agony that characterizes the period is unimaginable. Literally, the pregnant woman is incapacitated. The man that plants the seed is less troubled. That is why it is posited by a set of scholars that any woman that goes through just a delivery, dies once.

Therefore, the period of pregnancy to the period of delivery is accompanied with numerous health challenges while government and stakeholders in the health sector have continued to intensify gamut of efforts to address the problem from all angles.

Beside the issue of pregnancy where female folk is susceptible to problems, this very folk is always victim of diseases like Sexual Transmitted Infections (STIs) summarily classified under maternal morbidity.

Available statistics from World Health Organization (WHO) shows that about 2.5million women lose their life annually across the globe arising from pregnancy and child related complications.

It was also gathered that 90 per cent of these deaths occur in developing countries of which Nigeria is inclusive. In this scourge, Nigeria accounts for 14 per cent of the global maternal deaths while representing two per cent of the world's population. Unfortunately, most the deaths are preventable. The problem seems to be festering due to unwillingness on the part of stakeholders to actually seek antidote and hit the ground running in arresting the social health challenges.

Worried by the teething menace and its attendant casualties, Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI), a non governmental organization has taken the bull by the horn in waging war against the scourge in Kwara State.

The advocacy, it launched in the state to curb all forms of STIs under Gateway Behaviour's project, was employed through treatment and increased awareness on antenatal care for women.

Speaking at the endline dissemination meeting of the NURHI Gateway Project in Ilorin, the Director, Primary Healthcare and Disease Control, Mr Olumide pointed out that women needed to be armed with requisite information to reduce delays that could lead to increased maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality.

He explained that maternal mortality still stood at an unacceptable level and therefore needs new approach to ensure that the menace was drastically pruned down.

The Director told the gathering that the scourge was preventable if antenatal care services were made accessible to women.

He identified Gateway project as one of the timely interventions put in place by NURHI to address the challenge headlong.

Commending the NGO for bringing the initiative to women in Ilorin South and the state in general, the Director noted that the project since its birth had impacted positively on the maternal and child healthcare services in the state.

He said, "Every two minutes a woman dies from pregnancy or child related complications. This results in deaths of 2,443,000 women annually. Ninety per cent of these deaths occur in developing countries including Nigeria.

"Nigeria accounts for 14 per cent of the world's maternal deaths while representing only two per cent of the world's population, most of these deaths are preventable. Women need to be well equipped with necessary information to reduce delays that could lead to increased maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. According to the NDHS 2013, maternal mortality in Nigeria still stands at 576/100,000 live births.

"This is unacceptably high therefore, thing has to be done differently to ensure that this high maternal death rate is drastically brought down. We are counting down to the MDGs which has improving maternal health as one of its goals but the country is still far from achieving this goal. Most of these morbidity and mortality are preventable only if our women have access to and utilize antenatal care services".

He highlighted recognition of danger signs, plan for skilled birth attendant, plan for place of delivery, saving money for transport and other cost, identification of a potential blood donor and assistance during labour as one of the key strategies of focused antenatal care.

"It is important that every pregnant woman should know and be able to recognize possible danger signs in her and the unborn child during pregnancy and when to seek prompt help from a qualified healthcare provider. It is time we make every pregnancy count", the Director said.

According to NURHI Project Director, Dr Mojisola Odeku, places where Gateway Behaviour's Study were implemented included State Specialist Hospital, Ola-Olu Hospital, AnchorMed, Temitope and Olutayo Hospitals as well as Olufadi, Ero Omo and Kulende Basic Health Centres, all in Ilorin South Local Area of the state.

Odeku appreciated the state Ministry of Health, the state Primary Healthcare Development Board and Ilorin South council for the successful implementation of the study.

The Team Leader of Johns Hopkins University Centre for Communication Programs, Lisa Cobb, who offered insight into the study said, "The Gateway Behaviour's Study is an innovation that seeks to promote two key behaviours with a view to understanding how the uptake of one behaviour (Gateway behaviour), at a particular point in time (Gateway moment) using strategic cues (Gateway factors) can impact other positive health behaviours.

"The two key gateway behaviours are: completion of all recommended antenatal (at least four) visits spread across the three trimesters and interpersonal communication on family health matters among intimate network (spouse, mother-in-law, peers and friends).

"The interventions of the study which were implemented in Ilorin South LGA with Ilorin West as the control site has led to a significant increase in the number of women attending antenatal care in their first trimester and increase in spousal support as evidenced by the increased number of men who accompany their wives for antenatal care".