Pregnancy Statistics About Nigerian Mothers

Teenage pregnancy is high in Nigeria because of the many poor villages where adolescent youth do not have access to birth control. Because of the 400,000 unplanned pregnancies that happen every year, it is no wonder that about 46% of the population is aged 15 and under. Here are other staggering pregnancy statistics about Nigerian mothers that are staggering and stressing the need for increased healthcare reform in the country.

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Which Age Group Becomes First-Time Mothers the Most?

The National Population Commission of Nigeria states that 23% of adolescent women between the ages of 15 to 19 have already started to bear children. If pregnant adolescents are attending school, they will usually face peers making fun of them which causes them to sign out of school and sacrifice their education. Sometimes this also happens because school administrators have the authority to expel a pregnant student.

Contraceptive Use is Very Low

While the Nigerian government has attempted to make contraceptives available to mothers of child-bearing age, the Nigerian Demographic Health Survey evaluated that only 12% of Nigerian mothers in the nation regularly use contraceptive methods to control pregnancy as of 2018. Back in 1990, only 4% of mothers were using contraception.

While contraceptive use did increase by 8% in the past 28 years, it is still a very low usage statistic compared to other countries. For example, about 65% of women in the United States between the ages of 15 to 49 were using contraception in the United States in 2017. However, Americans see contraception as morally correct, which is the reason for the high usage statistics.

Besides Nigeria, other African countries mostly see contraception as morally wrong in their culture and mindset. Pew Research reports that Ghana, Senegal, Kenya, and Uganda as other countries that do not think contraception is correct.

Maternal Mortality Rates Are the Fourth Highest in Nigeria Compared to Other Countries Around the Globe

With more than 40 million women between the ages of 15 to 49, which is the average childbearing age, unfortunately, there is a high maternal mortality rate because of the health problems associated with birth in the country. UNICEF reports that the mortality rate is about 0.5% because 576 maternal mortalities occur for every 100,000 births in the country.

Hence, some babies have to, unfortunately, grow up without their mothers in their lives if they suffered death from birth complications. While Nigerian families are tight-knit in taking care of the most vulnerable members, it can be hard on the rest of the family to take in an orphaned child when their mother passes on.

All the healthcare system in Nigeria can do is continue to try to give local mothers the access they need to proper prenatal and antenatal care. As of now, only 65% of expecting mothers in Nigeria get the proper antenatal care they need.

According to their culture, some Nigerian women do not believe in what healthcare workers can do for their health. They also have to get permission from their fathers or husbands, whichever male is in charge of them, to seek medical care. Plus, transportation is mainly an issue for expecting mothers to regularly visit a healthcare provider to check their pregnancy health status.

Final Thoughts

As the Nigerian government and health care system continue to offer increased contraceptive availability, prenatal care, and antenatal care, young women and expecting mothers can get the sexual reproductive health access that they need for their current stage of life.