According to a new study report by Lancet, an estimated 313,700 infants died as stillborn across the country in 2015, ranking Nigeria second after India, with some 592,100 stillbirths.
It comes amidst efforts to reduce stillbirths to about 12 or less per 1,000 births by 2030.
The report noted that Nigeria’s second-place ranking for children dying before 28 weeks of pregnancy has remained the same since 2000, with only 1.3 deaths reduction annually since then.
By comparison, up to 240,000 infants died within their first 28 days of life last year, in addition to 58,100 women who died from pregnancy-related causes, according to the Lancet Series on Stillborn.
Programme manager, Society for Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON), Dr Segun Adeoye described the numbers unacceptably high.
He said the proposed Maternal, Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response will give “more precise and accurate data on why mothers and babies are dying.”
