CHAPTER
ONE
1.0 Introduction
1.1
Background of the Study
Giving birth is something in which
mankind and animals are equal….But rearing the young, and especially educating
them for many years is something which is a unique gift and responsibility of a
man. It is for this reason that it is important for human beings to put emphasis
on caring for children and the ability to look after them properly, rather than
thinking only about the number of children and the ability to give birth. For
it often happens that man’s ability to give birth is greater than their ability
to bring up the children (Julius
Neyerere cited in Centre for Disease Control 1983).
The above dictum could not have been more germane than in a
21st century Africa where many families grapple with the challenges of
malnutrition, infant mortality, road accidents, armed robbery, sexually
transmitted diseases, maternal mortality, kidnapping, unemployment, hunger,
civil strife, among others. One of the subtle but most frightening of all is
the issue of maternal mortality which incidentally is one of the biggest
problems facing the developing areas of the continent, including Nigeria. In
fact, Lindroos and Luukkainen (2004), in the Antenatal Care and Maternal
Mortality in Nigeria, were moved to ask a rhetorical question that
if maternal mortality is about 800 -1100/100,000 like it is in Nigeria, in a
country where the population is over 120 million it means about 54 000 deaths
every year. That is only a bit under 10% of all maternal mortality cases in the
world per year.
Raphael (2008) corroborates the foregoing statistics as he
asserts that Nigeria’s maternal mortality rate is the second highest in the
world, after India -1,100 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. The country
is home to 2 percent of the global population, but 10 percent of all maternal
deaths take place there. Only about 60% of pregnant women have access to
prenatal care in Nigeria and even fewer have access to family planning. These
sad and scary statistics have been blamed squarely on the Nigerian government’s
inability to provide access to information on family planning and contraception,
two issues very closely related to maternal death (Centre for Reproductive
Rights, CRR, and the Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, WARDC
2008).
Clearly, the health benefits of family planning associated
with child spacing and the use of specific methods can play a major role in
protecting the lives of infants, children, women and the family as a whole on
the continent of
Africa.
However, Nigeria is the most populous country on the
continent and among the ten most populated nations of the world. Its national
population is about 140 million and has been projected to reach 250 million by
the year 2015 (Population Reference Bureau, PRB 2004; National Population
Commission 2006). The large increase in size of the population is mostly a
function of past and present levels of fertility and mortality in the country.
In Nigeria, child spacing or the timing of every birth, including the first and
last, can improve the likelihood of survival and of good physical and emotional
health for the entire family at all stages of life.
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