Project Abstract

<p> he purpose of this study was to determine the influence of maternal mortality<br>on community development in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra<br>State. The major research questions developed for the study were as followed;<br>1. What are the causes of maternal mortality in Njikoka Local Government<br>Area of Anambra State? 2. In what ways does maternal mortality influence<br>economic development of communities in Njikoka Government Area? 3. In<br>what ways does maternal mortality influence educational development on<br>communities? 4. In what ways does maternal mortality influence social lives<br>of a community? 5. In what ways does maternal mortality influence health<br>development of the people? Adults in Idemili Local Government Area of<br>Anambra State between the ages of 18 – 51 years and above were used as the<br>target population while four hundred (400) adults were sampled for the study<br>using simple random sampling technique. In collecting data the structured<br>questionnaire was used. The data obtained were organized and analyzed using<br>percentage, mean score and standard deviation to answer the research<br>questions. The hypothesis for the study was tested using the z-test statistics.<br>The findings of the study included the following; 1. A close observation of the<br>findings in section 1 of the questionnaire reveals that responses from males are<br>more than responses from females. 2. Adults who were within the age range of<br>41 – 45 years formed majority, while those within the age range of 18 – 22<br>years old were fewer. 3. Those who obtained WAEC or O/L certificate formed<br>majority of the respondents, while only few of the respondents have university<br>qualification. 4. About 75% of the entire sampled population used for the<br>study were married while singles, engaged, divorced and widowed represent<br>only 25%. 5. Majority of the respondents were traders covering about 45% of<br>the sampled population. <br></p>

Project Overview

<p> INTRODUCTION<br>1.1 Background Of the Study<br>The act of giving birth is the most serious labour in the world.<br>(Ademowore, 2001). Apart from a small number of privileged and<br>conscientious countries that have succeeded in reducing maternal mortality to<br>close to zero, each pregnancy and birth remains a risky potentially fatal<br>experience for hundreds of millions of women worldwide.<br>In case study conducted by Adamson (1998) on maternal mortality,<br>some 600,000 women died in agony every year. Adamson further stated that it<br>is not an exaggeration to say that the issue of maternal mortality, fast in its<br>conspiracy of silence is in scale and severity the most neglected tragedy of our<br>time.<br>Adewumi (2000) stated that a staggering number of 585,000 women die<br>during pregnancy and childbirth, and these are not deaths like other deaths.<br>They die, hundreds of thousands of women whose lives came to an end in their<br>teens and twenties and thirties, in ways that set them apart from the normal run<br>of human experience.<br>In the 1990’s and early 2000’s for instance, studies carried out by<br>different researchers such as Adamson (1998), Caffrey (2000) revealed that a<br>lot of young women die in thousands and millions every year. And they<br>continue to die at the rate of 1,600 every yesterday, today and tomorrow. In the<br>2<br>worst part, these are deaths not of the ill, the very old and of the very young,<br>but of healthy women in the prime of their lives upon whom both young and<br>old may depend.<br>Mahmound (1999) opined that, maternal mortality is not about statistics.<br>It is about women; women who have face, faces which we have seen the throes<br>of agony, distress and despair. Faces which continue to hurt our dreams, not<br>simply because a maternal death is one of the most terrible ways to die…. But<br>above all because it could be avoided and should never have been allowed to<br>happen.<br>Millennium Development Goals (2006) see maternal mortality as the<br>death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of<br>pregnancy, irrespective of the duration of the pregnancy or its management but<br>not from accidental or incidental causes. As a result of advances in medical<br>science, economic resources and human welfare, it is possible to avoid<br>mortality almost entirely expect in the most extreme cases or as a result of<br>accidents. MDGs (2006) further stated that children are most vulnerable in the<br>first few months and years of life. Yet, in the advanced countries, the underfive<br>mortality rate fell during the 20th century to extremely low levels,<br>averaging only 6 per thousand live births (1998 UNICEF).<br>Beazley (2002) showed that the causes of maternal death are similar<br>throughout the world. Globally, around 80 percent of all maternal deaths are<br>the direct result of complications arising during pregnancy, delivery or the<br>puerperium. The most common direct obstetric causes include the following:<br>3<br>haemorrhage, sepsis, preeclampsia, anaemia, cephalopelvic disproportion,<br>malaria and abortion.<br>Women who are at higher risk of maternal mortality need to be<br>identified early, so that appropriate timely measures can be taken. Beazley<br>(2002) showed that these more vulnerable mothers include those who deliver at<br>extremes of maternal age (particularly those under 20 years or over 40 years).<br>The early age at which many women begin childbearing is therefore a serious<br>cause for concern.<br>Nigeria Millennium Development Goals (2005) in Nigeria Demographic<br>and Health Survey (NDHS, 1999) reported that 44 percent of women aged 20 –<br>24 had given birth before they were 20 years old, 27 percent before they were<br>15 years old. The survey found that 22 percent of teenagers aged 15 – 19 were<br>either already mothers or pregnant with their first child. The figures were<br>much higher in the rural areas than in the urban areas. Early pregnancy is<br>likened to one of the main reasons for the high rates of maternal mortality<br>among the young women of childbearing age.<br>In recent years, MDGs (2005) also indicated that illegally induced<br>abortion has increasingly been recognized as a major cause of mortality in<br>women of childbearing age, particularly among the young women. Maternal<br>mortality has become a threat to families, nations and the world at large. Many<br>families have lot their loved ones through maternal mortality and those gaps<br>which have been created can never be bridged because women are the nation<br>4<br>builders. They contribute to a large extent to the development of economic,<br>education, social and health sectors of every community.<br>With particular reference to Njikoka Local Government Area in<br>Anambra State, with a population of about one million National Population<br>Census (2006) people who engage mostly in subsistence farming, driving and<br>trading, the level of poverty is significantly high. Due to its location, Njikoka<br>L.G.A consists of semi-urban communities though it lacks most social<br>amenities which include adequate health resources, qualified doctors and<br>nurses, good road networks, educational facilities etc. The poverty and<br>illiteracy level within the community undoubtedly predisposes it to maternal<br>mortality. This is because women are nation builders in all sectors of<br>development throughout the whole world which is why their mortality hinders<br>development of the community thereby bringing under-development in the<br>community.<br>Ikedife (1999) said that there are complex problems associated with<br>providing good obstetric care for our women of childbearing age. The<br>expected joy from pregnancy and childbirth often eludes our women. Many<br>times, the hope of having a healthy baby and the joy of motherhood have been<br>replaced by bitter bereavement through the loss of a spouse or a caring mother.<br>In the 1990’s and early 2000’s maternal and perinatal mortality have continued<br>to maintain a disproportionately upward trend which is a great threat to our<br>community development.<br>5<br>Ikedife (1999) further stated that conditions of poverty, supervision,<br>poor nutritional status, illiteracy, infections and infestation affect obstetrics on<br>a wide scale. In addition facilities are grossly inadequate in all spheres of<br>medicine. Also compounding the situation is the facts that some clinical<br>conditions, which have apparently been confirmed, are now found in our<br>localities.<br>Harrison (2000) has written that over the years, there has been an<br>unjustifiably poor allocation to the health sector by the government and this has<br>accounted for inadequate and poorly equipped health facilities. The annual<br>health budget has always been far below the minimum five percent<br>recommended by the World Health Organization for developing states and<br>countries.<br>Harrison (2000), regretted that the few maternal health facilities that<br>exist are poorly utilized. It is therefore not surprising that the magnitude of<br>problems that face the practicing obstetrician, as well as women and children<br>are staggering.<br>All these, lead to high rate of maternal mortality in Njikoka Local<br>Government Area. This high maternal mortality in Njikoka has direct impact<br>on the development of the communities.<br>1.2 Statement of the Problem<br>6<br>Maternal mortality has become a threat to families, nations and the<br>world at large. Maternal mortality is not about statistics, it is about women;<br>women have names, women who have face, faces which we have seen in the<br>throes of agony, distress and despair. Faces which continue to live in our<br>memories and continue to hurt our dreams. Not simply because a maternal<br>death is one of the most terrible ways to die… but above all because it could be<br>avoided and should never have been allowed to happen. Maternal and perinatal<br>mortality have continued to maintain a disproportionately upward trend which<br>is a great threat to development of our communities.<br>No meaningful development can take place without women. They play<br>roles such as trading, farming, weaving, taking care of families, rendering<br>financial support to their husbands, contributing to the growth of communities<br>in the areas of health, social, educational development.<br>Maternal mortality hinders all these roles women played; hence, the<br>researcher was interested in studying the influence of the maternal mortality on<br>community development in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra<br>State.<br>1.3 Purpose of the Study<br>The general purpose of this study was to find out the influence of<br>maternal mortality on community development in Njikoka Local Government<br>Area of Anambra State.<br>Specifically, the study was meant to find out:<br>1. The causes of maternal mortality in Njikoka Local Government Area;<br>7<br>2. How maternal mortality influences economic development of<br>communities in Njikoka Local Government Area;<br>3. How maternal mortality influences educational development of<br>communities in Njikoka Local Government Area;<br>4. How maternal mortality influences social development of communities<br>in Njikoka Local Government Area;<br>5. How maternal mortality influences the health development of<br>communities in Njikoka Local Government Area.<br>1.4 Significance of the Study<br>It is hoped that the findings of this study will be of benefit to Parents,<br>Health Workers, Community Workers, Government and Non-Governmental<br>Agencies.<br>Parents will be able to understand the various ways of minimizing the<br>incidence of maternal mortality in their communities by patronizing adequate<br>health facilities during pregnancy, delivery and after birth. Health workers will<br>be able to know the right steps to take in creating awareness and knowing the<br>appropriate preventive measures of maternal mortality that is good for different<br>women during ante-natal programme. Community workers will also be<br>properly informed on the various modern health practices available in the<br>country and the world at large which will, in no small measure, reduce the rate<br>of maternal mortality in the society and Njikoka community in particular.<br>Those they can convey to the people through seminars, workshops and so on.<br>8<br>Government and Non-Governmental Agencies will see the areas of need<br>in order to intensify their efforts in implementing preventive measures geared<br>toward reducing maternal mortality in the rural areas.<br>It will also expose the male folk to the need for allowing their women<br>receive adequate medical care during pregnancy rather than engaging in the<br>obsolete methods of medication and child delivery which has been the method<br>inmost homes in Njikoka Local Government Area.<br>It is equally hoped that the findings of this will serve as a starting point<br>for both the government, community workers and other enlightened<br>stakeholders on their roles in reducing maternal mortality in our communities<br>and the society at large through enlightenment campaigns programmes.<br>1.5 Research Questions<br>The following research questions guided the study:<br>1. What are the causes of maternal mortality in Njikoka Local<br>Government Area?<br>2. In what ways does maternal mortality influence economic<br>development of communities in Njikoka Local Government Area?<br>3. How does maternal mortality influence educational development<br>of communities in Njikoka Local Government Area?<br>4. How does maternal mortality influence social development of<br>communities in Njikoka Government Area?<br>5. In what does maternal mortality influence the Health Development<br>of communities in Njikoka Local Government Area?<br>9<br>1.6 Scope of the Study<br>The study was carried out in Njikoka Local Government Area of<br>Anambra State. The study covered economic, education, social and health<br>sectors and how maternal mortality influences the development of these sectors<br>in the various communities in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra<br>State.<br>1.7 Hypothesis<br>1. There is no significant difference between the mean score of males and<br>females responses to the influence of maternal mortality on community<br>development.<br>10 <br></p>