2025 Safe Motherhood Day: FCTA advocates collective action on improving maternal healthcare

By Stanley Onyekwere

In order to ensure end to preventable maternal and neonatal deaths, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has called for active participation of everyone towards  improving  maternal health in the Territory.

Stressing that such responsibility is not that of the health sector alone, the FCTA insisted that everyone – from policymakers to traditional, religious leaders, husbands

adolescents, media houses to civil society organizations must work together to break down the barriers that keep women from accessing care; be it ignorance, poverty, distance, or harmful cultural practices.

The FCTA, which asserted this in a speech by its Mandate Secretary, Health Services and Environmental Secretariat (HSES), Dr. Dolapo Fasawe on the occasion of the 2025 Safe Motherhood Day

commemoration, theme: “Innovating for Safer Births: A Collective Responsibility to Crash Maternal Mortality”, in Abuja, also stated that stakeholders  must ensure that health facilities are not only available, but also welcoming, responsive, and well-equipped.

Fasawe, who was represented by  the director of Nursing Services in the secretariat, Dr. Ijeoma Bada,  noted that Safe Motherhood Day is not just a day on the calendar, but a powerful reminder of the collective duty to safeguard the lives of women and newborns to ensure that no woman dies while giving life, adding  that it is a call to action, to reflection, and above all, to sustained effort.

She said: “This theme is both timely and instructive. It compels us to embrace fresh thinking, new technologies, stronger partnerships, and above all, shared accountability in our journey toward ending preventable maternal and neonatal deaths.

“As part of this year’s commemoration, the FCT Administration through the Health Services and Environmental Secretariat in collaboration with partners lined up impactful

interventions, including:

mass awareness campaigns on the importance of antenatal care, facility-based delivery s

postnatal care, and family planning:

community engagements with Ward Development Committees (WIDCs), traditional leaders, and youth groups to deepen trust in our healthcare system; distribution of maternal gift packs to encourage positive health-seeking behaviors;

and the provision of “Renewed Hope” medical kits to Primary Health Care (PHC) workers to strengthen their capacity to save lives.

“These activities are not symbolic, they are part of our broader strategy to empower communities, support health care workers, and ensure that no woman is left behind.

“We know that no one sector or agency can do this alone. That is why we are calling on:

community leaders to champion maternal health in every household;

Young people to take responsibility for their reproductive choices;

The media and civil society to amplify health messages;

And health workers to continue being the pillars of safe motherhood.

“When we work together, we make childbirth safer. We make motherhood joyful. And we give our babies a strong, healthy start to life.”

Furthermore, the HSES Secretary assured that the FCT Administration remains firmly committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 3, which calls for good health and well-being, and specifically, the reduction of maternal mortality to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030.

Also speaking,, the Ag. Executive Secretary, Dr. Ruqayya Wamakko,  attributed major cause of  the seemingly high rate of child mortality in the society to poor health seeking behavior of the people, who often than not visit the health facility, when already a damage or something has set in before they do so.

“The health-seeking behavior, they don’t come to the facility in time. Unless they try other means, it didn’t work, before they will now come to the facility. And that is the major cause.

“That is why in FCT, social mobilization, advocacy, communication is key to be able to engage people in the community, engage the traditional leaders, religious leaders, the women leaders and the youth leaders, mothers, so that they can be positive in their health seeking behaviour”, she said.