Accelerating the Reduction of Maternal and Newborn Mortality

Results achieved as of March 2013 include: training 1 611 health workers to provide maternal and child health services and information including: (1) training 248 nurse-midwives and community resource people to provide skilled pre- and post-natal care to about 100 000 pregnant women and their newborns; (2) training and equipping 280 Community Health Extension Workers to provide community-based newborn care; (3) training 60 health care providers and 30 people living with HIV to provide prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV services to an estimated 3 000 HIV-exposed infants; and (4) training 71 health workers on the Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses - an integrated preventive and curative approach to child health implemented by families communities and health facilities. More than one million couples were provided with protection against unwanted pregnancies that contributed to averting over two hundred thousand pregnancies and over 1 000 pregnant women from dying during childbirth. Also the transmission of health service data from states to the national level was improved. In addition the implementing partners (UNICEF WHO and UNFPA) - in coordination with other development partners - assisted the Government of Nigeria to roll-out Maternal Newborn and Child Health Weeks results of which (as of March 2013) include: (1) helping to reach over four million pregnant women with essential maternal health services (such as insecticide-treated bed nets anti-malaria drugs and health education) and more than 23 million children under the age of five with essential life-saving interventions (including Vitamin A supplements de-worming tablets and nutrition support); (2) reaching over three million caregivers with training on the prevention of leading diseases affecting mothers and children (sleeping inside insecticide treated bed nets using oral rehydration solutions to treat diarrhea completing immunizations hand washing antenatal care an