A Nigerian woman dies every seven minutes from pregnancy or childbirth complications, the United Nations Children’s Fund has disclosed, as Nigeria records an estimated 75,000 maternal deaths every year — one of the highest national totals in the world.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) raised the alarm while highlighting the country’s deteriorating maternal mortality situation and pressing governments, healthcare institutions and development partners to act before more preventable deaths occur.
The agency identified the primary causes of death as severe post-partum bleeding, infections, unsafe abortions, hypertension during pregnancy and delayed access to emergency treatment. UNICEF said the vast majority of these deaths are preventable, but persist because of weak healthcare infrastructure, a shortage of trained birth attendants, poverty and poor emergency response systems, particularly in rural communities.
Northern Nigeria and conflict-affected regions carry the heaviest burden, where insecurity, displacement and the breakdown of health facilities have left pregnant women with few reliable options for safe delivery.
The ongoing emigration of Nigerian healthcare workers is deepening the problem. Thousands of doctors and nurses have left for the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States in recent years, leaving already stretched public hospitals increasingly unable to meet demand.
Globally, the United Nations (UN) estimates one woman dies every two minutes from pregnancy or childbirth-related complications, with sub-Saharan Africa accounting for the majority of those cases.
UNICEF has called for immediate and coordinated intervention to strengthen maternal healthcare systems, increase the availability of skilled birth attendants and ensure that economic hardship does not prevent women from accessing the antenatal care they need.
