A Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, George Ugwu, has said the belief that reaching a tertiary hospital by women giving birth is the ultimate safety net when childbirth complications arise is no longer true in Nigeria.
He noted that new medical research reveals a troubling reality: Timely physical arrival at a high-level health facility no longer assures survival.
He pointed out that systemic failures, acute equipment deficits, severe brain drain, and institutional delays within public tertiary hospitals continue to claim the lives of pregnant women who made it to the hospital alive.
Speaking at the 251st Inaugural Lecture of the University of Nigeria held at the UNN Business School Auditorium, Enugu Campus, Ugwu, raised the alarm over the institutional bottlenecks crippling emergency maternal care across the country.
Ugwu, who is also the Enugu State Commissioner for Health, delivered a paper titled, ‘The Mother, The Child and The State: My Triumphant Journey from Evidence to Action.’
