[Music]
today I’m going to be sharing with you
my understanding of health not that my
understanding is very different from the
classical definition of health but I
believe that by thinking differently of
my seen things differently it offers one
an opportunity to explore things that
you ordinarily will not see to be sure
that I’m talking with in the books
health for me is a complete physical
mental social and emotional well-being
and not merely the absence of disease or
infirmity this is how classically we’re
all taught in medical school a couple of
decades ago now if this is health is not
just absence of disease it is complete
physical mental well-being what are we
talking about what is so different about
health but before I talk to you I want
to share with you a story that happened
just yesterday a profound story for me
as an obstetrician gynecologist but a
sad story because it was not reported in
the newspapers as profound as my story
is yesterday there was a plane crash and
on this plane there were 110 pregnant
women some have one baby
some have two babies all of them died no
single person survived it happened
yesterday in Nigeria and it was not
reported in the newspapers I can see the
pain and I can see the that is belief
but this is exactly the number of women
that die every single day in Nigeria
because of pregnancy and childbirth and
we don’t talk about it
this is the number of women that died
yesterday as we’re talking half of them
have already died today and the rest
will certainly die before close of
business today and so it happens day in
day out this is my life as an
obstetrician this is what we see
maternal health is the one indicator
that is being used to develop to measure
the health of of any nation so for me
where do we stand as a country where
does Nigeria stand as a country in terms
of maternal health now in health if you
look at Nigeria the giant of Africa we
stand tall even in maternal death
maternal mortality ratio is about 576
but the 576 is just a number per 100,000
birth if you look very very closely for
you to understand you have to look very
closely at the data and this is our own
national survey if you look at the data
there is a significant difference
between the North and the South the data
on on the right is that of the Northwest
and on this extreme left is the South
South under five mortality is a top blue
one and look at how high it is in the
northwest northeast and southeast and
then it goes down this way and this is
so consistent in fact if you look very
closely at maternal mortality ratio
which is the real indicator that is used
for monitoring and assessing the
development of any country you look at
it the Southwest has a much I’d say to
you 576 isn’t it but the Southwest has a
maternal mortality ratio of 165 and
where I come from we
maternal mortality ratio of over 1,500
in the Northwest over a thousand a
thousand and 25 so what is this game is
it that there aren’t enough hospitals if
you look at the system of Nigeria
because we are a Federation every touch
every institution is has to be spread Li
spread equally to fit the geopolitical
zone so there are numbers there you find
government’s there almost everything
that’s done centrally the some level of
equity in terms of numbers what is
crucial in maternal mortality is not
just the death of a woman when a woman
dies in any family what really happens
is that she goes away a lot of times
with an unborn child all her living
children become orphans and the husband
becomes wifeless imagine a scenario
where a family you know and I want you
to look at it very very personal look
back to your own village we all come
from a different village probably few of
us are from Abuja in your own village an
aunt you know a cousin you know among
the women in Nigeria any woman who
bothers to be pregnant at this stage
stands a one in 30 risk of dying so if
this was a bunch of women we probably
have this number dying in nine months
why is this important why is maternal
mortality ratio is important but also
importantly why is there significant
difference between the south west and
the north is under Northwest is that
because these ones are their children
and uranium and therefore this just
grinders and stuff and the husband’s are
mallams and therefore witches I learned
is a synonym for security guard is it
because of the ethnicity is it because
of their religion or is it because of
their culture or even is it because of
their wealth come time unfortunately is
none of these it’s not genetic it’s not
cultural it’s not religion then what is
it what what is that notorious in that
is given this figure if you look even
further the key is actually the level of
education of the women this is a central
denominator that determines the level of
maternal health in fact the level of
education of a woman is much more
significant than wealth Khan time if you
compare the level of education of a
woman and the wealth of a family level
of education is much more important it
is important because it is only with
completion of secondary school that
knowledge is transferred from knowledge
from the in the brain sitting in the
brain to action I remember we did a
study somewhere in the GAO estate where
knowledge of women for family planning
was as high as 75 percent but less than
1% use family planning and this is
simple you need to get a level of
knowledge that is so significant that
you can move from knowing to acting and
this is what completion of Secondary
School does also what we found is that
completion of Secondary School has a
multiplier effect on life itself it
reduces maternal mortality it reduces
child mortality the chances of a child
dying of a mother that has not gone
through school compared to that that has
gone second through secondary school is
twice and when you take it to tertiary
school tertiary institution is three
times less likely to die if a woman has
institution and half if the woman has
secondary school education but also
importantly women that have secondary
school education the data has
consistently shown us from 1999 to date
that women who have secondary school
education are better able first they
marry later on average the average age
of marriage among women with no
education is 13 and first child birth is
15 so just by going through the motion
of completing secondary school even if
you got all the FS and you didn’t learn
anything just being there in school
moves your age of marriage from about 13
to about 19 and age of first child birth
to about 20 years and for me as an
obstetrician what is important is that a
couple of things one I know for certain
that the woman’s pelvis continues to
grow until the age of 20 so therefore a
girl below the age of 20 is a parasite
in Israel is a growing child and to have
a baby that is a parasite living in half
competing for her new trends competing
for the calcium she needs to grow her
bones competing for the iron she needs
to grow her blood computing for the
protein that she needs to grow up to be
a woman is a parasitic relationship
so therefore if a woman if a go spell
this does not grow to its natural size
which happens around the age of 19 you
find that she’s not even able after
carrying a baby for nine months she’s
not able to successfully deliver the
child as unless the child is severely
malnourished which then increases the
chances of the child’s death so a woman
adult just keeping her in school with no
like learning nothing increases our
probability of survival increases the
probability of our child survivor and it
gives an opportunity for how to also
grow
but also importantly it also allows her
when she does marry to be able to take
decisions around pregnancy attend Anton
Otto deliver in facility immunize her
children a lot of the children that die
in Nigeria die of preventable diseases
they’re not dying of cancer they’re not
dying of leukemia they’re not dying of
any fantastic disease that’s not
preventable a lot of our children die of
measles I’m sure you’ve had the recent
outbreak of measles that is shamefully
happening in this country a lot of them
died of meningitis a lot of them died of
pneumonia and diarrhea these are all
preventable things that can be prevented
cheaply this is what happened where the
baby gives birth to a baby this is what
happens when a girl does not reach
maturity and she says the the the
process of childbirth but also very very
important is the fact that childbirth
now I know at least I have many children
requires more than just the biology it
requires ability to guide the child
it requires ability to be able to know
what kinds of things what kinds of child
is your child going through on the phone
it requires an ability to understand the
social media the social context that the
child is living so if we do not take
care of maternal mortality what really
happens then is that a lot of children
grow up with ignorant moms and you can
imagine in this digital age
you saw what Sadiq told us what
everybody showed us can you imagine a
child being brought up first without a
mother without guidance without love
without emotional stability and you just
take that child and put that child in a
world to compete with the sadik’s
what opportunity are you given that
child now for me as a as a health person
because health is not just simply the
absence of disease or infirmity is the
complete physical mental and emotional
well-being what is key for us here so
what’s the big deal why are we talking
about this what does it concern me after
all unhealthy my children are healthy my
grandchildren I hope will be healthy
what the big deal here is that health is
not just about the you health is about
social and emotional well-being and
because it involves social and emotional
well-being my health is dependent on the
health of so many people the health of
your neighbor will impact on your health
the health of your cousin will impact on
your health the health of your coworker
will impact on your health and so
therefore thinking about health in a
broad sense is not just being good it’s
not being altruistic it’s actually being
selfish how do I live longer life
without stress and you can only do this
if you care about the health of your
neighbor but most importantly the health
of women and children now the health of
women and children is no big deal it’s
just ensuring that women and girls are
well educated if you educate a girl she
will figure out the rest she will
definitely figure out the rest by what I
think every time I think and have the
opportunity to too young to talk to
young people I always go back to one
thing that in order for us to be
impactful we have to begin to change our
paradigm of thinking at the moment we’re
in a gear a fast gear of I’m okay if I
am okay everything is okay but it’s not
okay if only you are okay and I’ll tell
you why at the moment about half of
Nigerian children don’t finish secondary
school in this day and age
a lot of you will Excel a lot of those
children will not excel there will be
your houseboy House bill drivers your
life will be totally dependent on them
can you imagine a life where your house
where your husband your driver and your
cleaner gang up against you that’s death
without a coffin so for me the issue of
health is not just health is an issue of
social justice and social inequity we
cannot continue to stay and be happy
that I can go to any Hospital I want to
go to and that my sister next door could
just die the one thing I can assure you
would happen is that if I do allow that
the children of my sister will make life
impossible for me or make life
impossible for my children or my
children’s children so it’s not okay
that you are okay and I think for me if
you get out of this and in the few
minutes I speak you only go out with one
thing it’s not okay when I alone is okay
is only okay when we are on okay because
social justice and equity is not
acceptable importantly I also know that
you each each one of you it doesn’t
matter your age including Fawzia you can
do something you don’t have to have
money you don’t need to send me
proposals you don’t have to have money
to do something you just need two things
one a frame of mine a change frame of
mind that is not okay when I’m okay that
I have a responsibility to ensure that
every other person within my little
niche is also okay this for me is social
justice and the basis of life itself the
second is you can do something so for me
if we sit here and discuss
intellectually and go out honestly we
have filled and we have wasted our day
it’s not okay to have intellectual
discussion it’s not okay to chat it’s
not okay
just SMS and tweet what is okay is when
you do something about it and you can do
something about it you can take your
mouth and talk about it you can ensure
in your little environment that every
girl goes to school you can ensure in
your own little environment that you’re
doing what you need to do you don’t need
many so my hope and prayer is that as we
walk out here will also give ourselves
permission to just stop and think this
is the one gift we all have and we don’t
use just stop and think for heaven send
don’t tweet for one hour
just think reflect on the day and come
up with one little thing that you can do
to change somebody else’s life for me
that is health for me that is social
justice for me that is equity and for me
importantly this is the only way that we
can move this country forward and trust
me you can’t rely on people my age we
haven’t done it when I’m going to do it
in the last two decades of our age of
our lives
the game is the ball is in your court
you can do it
you’re the future of this country I
thank you
[Music]
[Music]
today I’m going to be sharing with you
my understanding of health not that my
understanding is very different from the
classical definition of health but I
believe that by thinking differently of
my seen things differently it offers one
an opportunity to explore things that
you ordinarily will not see to be sure
that I’m talking with in the books
health for me is a complete physical
mental social and emotional well-being
and not merely the absence of disease or
infirmity this is how classically we’re
all taught in medical school a couple of
decades ago now if this is health is not
just absence of disease it is complete
physical mental well-being what are we
talking about what is so different about
health but before I talk to you I want
to share with you a story that happened
just yesterday a profound story for me
as an obstetrician gynecologist but a
sad story because it was not reported in
the newspapers as profound as my story
is yesterday there was a plane crash and
on this plane there were 110 pregnant
women some have one baby
some have two babies all of them died no
single person survived it happened
yesterday in Nigeria and it was not
reported in the newspapers I can see the
pain and I can see the that is belief
but this is exactly the number of women
that die every single day in Nigeria
because of pregnancy and childbirth and
we don’t talk about it
this is the number of women that died
yesterday as we’re talking half of them
have already died today and the rest
will certainly die before close of
business today and so it happens day in
day out this is my life as an
obstetrician this is what we see
maternal health is the one indicator
that is being used to develop to measure
the health of of any nation so for me
where do we stand as a country where
does Nigeria stand as a country in terms
of maternal health now in health if you
look at Nigeria the giant of Africa we
stand tall even in maternal death
maternal mortality ratio is about 576
but the 576 is just a number per 100,000
birth if you look very very closely for
you to understand you have to look very
closely at the data and this is our own
national survey if you look at the data
there is a significant difference
between the North and the South the data
on on the right is that of the Northwest
and on this extreme left is the South
South under five mortality is a top blue
one and look at how high it is in the
northwest northeast and southeast and
then it goes down this way and this is
so consistent in fact if you look very
closely at maternal mortality ratio
which is the real indicator that is used
for monitoring and assessing the
development of any country you look at
it the Southwest has a much I’d say to
you 576 isn’t it but the Southwest has a
maternal mortality ratio of 165 and
where I come from we
maternal mortality ratio of over 1,500
in the Northwest over a thousand a
thousand and 25 so what is this game is
it that there aren’t enough hospitals if
you look at the system of Nigeria
because we are a Federation every touch
every institution is has to be spread Li
spread equally to fit the geopolitical
zone so there are numbers there you find
government’s there almost everything
that’s done centrally the some level of
equity in terms of numbers what is
crucial in maternal mortality is not
just the death of a woman when a woman
dies in any family what really happens
is that she goes away a lot of times
with an unborn child all her living
children become orphans and the husband
becomes wifeless imagine a scenario
where a family you know and I want you
to look at it very very personal look
back to your own village we all come
from a different village probably few of
us are from Abuja in your own village an
aunt you know a cousin you know among
the women in Nigeria any woman who
bothers to be pregnant at this stage
stands a one in 30 risk of dying so if
this was a bunch of women we probably
have this number dying in nine months
why is this important why is maternal
mortality ratio is important but also
importantly why is there significant
difference between the south west and
the north is under Northwest is that
because these ones are their children
and uranium and therefore this just
grinders and stuff and the husband’s are
mallams and therefore witches I learned
is a synonym for security guard is it
because of the ethnicity is it because
of their religion or is it because of
their culture or even is it because of
their wealth come time unfortunately is
none of these it’s not genetic it’s not
cultural it’s not religion then what is
it what what is that notorious in that
is given this figure if you look even
further the key is actually the level of
education of the women this is a central
denominator that determines the level of
maternal health in fact the level of
education of a woman is much more
significant than wealth Khan time if you
compare the level of education of a
woman and the wealth of a family level
of education is much more important it
is important because it is only with
completion of secondary school that
knowledge is transferred from knowledge
from the in the brain sitting in the
brain to action I remember we did a
study somewhere in the GAO estate where
knowledge of women for family planning
was as high as 75 percent but less than
1% use family planning and this is
simple you need to get a level of
knowledge that is so significant that
you can move from knowing to acting and
this is what completion of Secondary
School does also what we found is that
completion of Secondary School has a
multiplier effect on life itself it
reduces maternal mortality it reduces
child mortality the chances of a child
dying of a mother that has not gone
through school compared to that that has
gone second through secondary school is
twice and when you take it to tertiary
school tertiary institution is three
times less likely to die if a woman has
institution and half if the woman has
secondary school education but also
importantly women that have secondary
school education the data has
consistently shown us from 1999 to date
that women who have secondary school
education are better able first they
marry later on average the average age
of marriage among women with no
education is 13 and first child birth is
15 so just by going through the motion
of completing secondary school even if
you got all the FS and you didn’t learn
anything just being there in school
moves your age of marriage from about 13
to about 19 and age of first child birth
to about 20 years and for me as an
obstetrician what is important is that a
couple of things one I know for certain
that the woman’s pelvis continues to
grow until the age of 20 so therefore a
girl below the age of 20 is a parasite
in Israel is a growing child and to have
a baby that is a parasite living in half
competing for her new trends competing
for the calcium she needs to grow her
bones competing for the iron she needs
to grow her blood computing for the
protein that she needs to grow up to be
a woman is a parasitic relationship
so therefore if a woman if a go spell
this does not grow to its natural size
which happens around the age of 19 you
find that she’s not even able after
carrying a baby for nine months she’s
not able to successfully deliver the
child as unless the child is severely
malnourished which then increases the
chances of the child’s death so a woman
adult just keeping her in school with no
like learning nothing increases our
probability of survival increases the
probability of our child survivor and it
gives an opportunity for how to also
grow
but also importantly it also allows her
when she does marry to be able to take
decisions around pregnancy attend Anton
Otto deliver in facility immunize her
children a lot of the children that die
in Nigeria die of preventable diseases
they’re not dying of cancer they’re not
dying of leukemia they’re not dying of
any fantastic disease that’s not
preventable a lot of our children die of
measles I’m sure you’ve had the recent
outbreak of measles that is shamefully
happening in this country a lot of them
died of meningitis a lot of them died of
pneumonia and diarrhea these are all
preventable things that can be prevented
cheaply this is what happened where the
baby gives birth to a baby this is what
happens when a girl does not reach
maturity and she says the the the
process of childbirth but also very very
important is the fact that childbirth
now I know at least I have many children
requires more than just the biology it
requires ability to guide the child
it requires ability to be able to know
what kinds of things what kinds of child
is your child going through on the phone
it requires an ability to understand the
social media the social context that the
child is living so if we do not take
care of maternal mortality what really
happens then is that a lot of children
grow up with ignorant moms and you can
imagine in this digital age
you saw what Sadiq told us what
everybody showed us can you imagine a
child being brought up first without a
mother without guidance without love
without emotional stability and you just
take that child and put that child in a
world to compete with the sadik’s
what opportunity are you given that
child now for me as a as a health person
because health is not just simply the
absence of disease or infirmity is the
complete physical mental and emotional
well-being what is key for us here so
what’s the big deal why are we talking
about this what does it concern me after
all unhealthy my children are healthy my
grandchildren I hope will be healthy
what the big deal here is that health is
not just about the you health is about
social and emotional well-being and
because it involves social and emotional
well-being my health is dependent on the
health of so many people the health of
your neighbor will impact on your health
the health of your cousin will impact on
your health the health of your coworker
will impact on your health and so
therefore thinking about health in a
broad sense is not just being good it’s
not being altruistic it’s actually being
selfish how do I live longer life
without stress and you can only do this
if you care about the health of your
neighbor but most importantly the health
of women and children now the health of
women and children is no big deal it’s
just ensuring that women and girls are
well educated if you educate a girl she
will figure out the rest she will
definitely figure out the rest by what I
think every time I think and have the
opportunity to too young to talk to
young people I always go back to one
thing that in order for us to be
impactful we have to begin to change our
paradigm of thinking at the moment we’re
in a gear a fast gear of I’m okay if I
am okay everything is okay but it’s not
okay if only you are okay and I’ll tell
you why at the moment about half of
Nigerian children don’t finish secondary
school in this day and age
a lot of you will Excel a lot of those
children will not excel there will be
your houseboy House bill drivers your
life will be totally dependent on them
can you imagine a life where your house
where your husband your driver and your
cleaner gang up against you that’s death
without a coffin so for me the issue of
health is not just health is an issue of
social justice and social inequity we
cannot continue to stay and be happy
that I can go to any Hospital I want to
go to and that my sister next door could
just die the one thing I can assure you
would happen is that if I do allow that
the children of my sister will make life
impossible for me or make life
impossible for my children or my
children’s children so it’s not okay
that you are okay and I think for me if
you get out of this and in the few
minutes I speak you only go out with one
thing it’s not okay when I alone is okay
is only okay when we are on okay because
social justice and equity is not
acceptable importantly I also know that
you each each one of you it doesn’t
matter your age including Fawzia you can
do something you don’t have to have
money you don’t need to send me
proposals you don’t have to have money
to do something you just need two things
one a frame of mine a change frame of
mind that is not okay when I’m okay that
I have a responsibility to ensure that
every other person within my little
niche is also okay this for me is social
justice and the basis of life itself the
second is you can do something so for me
if we sit here and discuss
intellectually and go out honestly we
have filled and we have wasted our day
it’s not okay to have intellectual
discussion it’s not okay to chat it’s
not okay
just SMS and tweet what is okay is when
you do something about it and you can do
something about it you can take your
mouth and talk about it you can ensure
in your little environment that every
girl goes to school you can ensure in
your own little environment that you’re
doing what you need to do you don’t need
many so my hope and prayer is that as we
walk out here will also give ourselves
permission to just stop and think this
is the one gift we all have and we don’t
use just stop and think for heaven send
don’t tweet for one hour
just think reflect on the day and come
up with one little thing that you can do
to change somebody else’s life for me
that is health for me that is social
justice for me that is equity and for me
importantly this is the only way that we
can move this country forward and trust
me you can’t rely on people my age we
haven’t done it when I’m going to do it
in the last two decades of our age of
our lives
the game is the ball is in your court
you can do it
you’re the future of this country I
thank you
[Music]
[Music]
Please follow and like us: