When pregnancy is a fatal condition.

last updated 8 January 2015

Nigeria

Editorial

Nigerian women risk their lives every time they get pregnant, said Lagos’ Vanguard in an editorial. Every 10 minutes, a Nigerian dies of complications from childbirth. And for every one who dies, another 30 to 50 “suffer debilitating injury, infection, or disease.” Such “grim statistics” would be unthinkable in the developed world. Indeed, the most glaring disparity between rich and poor countries is in their maternal mortality rates. Virtually no women in the West die in childbirth. But in sub-Saharan Africa, one out of 13 women dies that way. It would take just the most basic rudiments of medical care to prevent the vast majority of these casualties. Why can’t Nigeria provide this? “Government at all levels”—village, state, and federal—must contribute. “These statistics are about people.”