Considerable amount of energy has been spewed in the quest to seek solutions and put a complete closure to the cries, lamentations and challenges of our mothers and infants in rural outposts of this country.
Many studies have been conducted. Billions of dollars poured. Traditional birth attendants trained. And many other noble interventions put in place. But the gloomy face of maternal and infant deaths still stares at us. Undeterred. Unchanged. Unmoved.
The painful episode of burying - and forgetting - under-fours has refused to die and leave our rural folk. The questions thus pop up: Where do we go after here? Where did we go wrong?
The tipping point is here. We took the wrong route. We failed to contextualize the hearty causes of maternal and infant deaths in rural outposts. We transplanted the so-called "best practices" in urban areas to our rural folk. This is where the rain began to beat us.
Some quick observations. Though lack of medical practitioners and/or distant and far apart health facilities contribute significantly to birth-related deaths, many other "undocumented practices" pose a great risk in negating efforts and reversing the positive strides made in addressing maternal health in the remote corners of this nation.
First: Many rural women engage in sex at an early age to "feel modern and close to those in urban centers". For this group, sex - protected or otherwise - is a powerful tool to link up with others of "superior status". This, my people, is the prime culprit causing unwanted pregnancies and by extension birth-related complications.
Second: Poverty among our rural brothers and sisters remains a great catalyst of child marriages. Families "sell" their daughters in order to put food on the table.
Third: Arrogance on the part of nurses and other health workers plays a great part in pushing mothers to the hands of unskilled traditional birth attendants.
Fourth: Creativity is highly needed to reverse this trend. We must admit that normative approaches have failed to scale down maternal deaths in favour of our mothers and babies. It's time we thought harder with a view to bringing hope to these people.
Fifth: We have pushed men to the corner. We have reduced them to mere spectators on issues touching their families – their wives and children.
Some thoughts are here. Men hold the key to unlocking this obstacle. On matters children and family sizes, they are law personified. Bypassing them plays against the interests of women and infants. They are thirsty of awareness. And to rope them in, we must educate them on the need to free their women to visit health facilities.
Traditional birth attendants save more lives than medics down there. Recognition is key. They deserve respect. The trust they command cannot be wished away by some distant scholarly arrogance. We must be ready to sit down with them. Listen to what they say. And use them to reach out to pregnant mothers in their neighborhoods. This is the ladder we must all climb to save our rural mothers.
There is need to economically empower our women. To run away from this is to turn our mothers and sisters into objects. It is akin to granting them permission to use "other means" to survive. Economic power is the answer that poor family needs to save its innocent daughter from the bondage of early marriage.
With economic empowerment come healthy, well-fed women. A guaranteed income for a poor, rural family is a guaranteed life. We owe these guys an explanation for not addressing these fundamental aspects that touch their very foundations - the central pillar of their existence.
The forces of poverty and despair can only be quashed by a comprehensive all-inclusive approach that recognizes the central position of women in powering rural economies. Build markets for them. Train them. Give them capital.
Only through this shall we restore hope and dignity to the people. The bitter truth is that we have more mountains to climb to uplift our women. Let the move begin.
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