10,315 pregnant women deliver 14,216 children in Ondo hospital

Sunday Aborisade, Akure

Medical experts at the Ondo State-owned Mother and Child Hospital in Akure, the state capital, have delivered 10,315 pregnant women of 14,216 children in the last 15 months since it was established by the Governor Olusegun Mimiko's administration.


The State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Ranti Akerele, who stated this during an interview with journalists in Akure on Monday, also explained that an average of 20 to 25 deliveries were recorded daily, making it the busiest hospital in the state and one of the busiest in Nigeria.

Akerele said the hospital was the first purpose-built state-of-the-art 100-bed facility dedicated to the care of pregnant women and children below five years.

The medical facility according to him, is offering at tertiary level, health services free of charge.

He said, "The vision is to reduce maternal and child mortality by 50 per cent now, and further reduce it to 30 per cent by 2013 respectively.

"Today at the facility, there is, among other things, a unique and cost effective digitalised drug procurement system that has practically eradicated out of stock syndrome, which remained the bane of many free health schemes across the country.

"The hospital has state-of-the-art training mannequins including electronic force monitoring birthing and airway management simulators for life like practical demonstrations and applications on emergency care."

The commissioner added that the Akure MCH was currently collaborating with the London School of Hygiene and tropical medicine to conduct "a multiple centre double-blind randomised clinical trial on the management of postpartum hemorrhage using tranexamic acid."

He said 20 per cent of the current beneficiaries were non-residents of Ondo State as pregnant women from other states had started taking advantage of the hospital.


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