It was really a sad atmospheric moment for Owolabi Balogun popularly known as Junior, one of the trusted aides of Lagos State House of Assembly member representing Somolu constituency I, Hon. Rotimi Olowo Emmanuel as sympathizers have been thronging his Popoola residence to commiserate with him over the demise of his beloved wife who gave up the ghost after childbirth on Sunday 18th September 2022.
After the successful delivery of the baby in the early hour of Saturday, the father of the newborn baby boy took to his social media handle to announce to the people about the arrival of the baby which generated a lot of congratulatory messages throughout the day.
The news of the newborn baby came with lots of fun and merry-making as many of the couple’s friends and family have been boasting of an eventful and exciting naming ceremony ahead of the day only for the mother of the newborn baby to have been reported dead the following day owing to complication from the childbirth.
The sympathizers who could not visit him have flooded his social media handle with condolence messages, praying to God to give the bereaved family the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss, grant the deceased eternal rest, and forgive her shortcomings.
However, the deceased has been buried according to Muslim rite with her husband, Owolabi (Jnr.) surrounded by an ‘army of friends and family following his wife’s sudden death.
Amongst the early callers includes member Lagos State House of Assembly Hon. Rotimi Olowo Emmanuel, Chairman of Bariga LCDA; Hon. Alabi Kolade David, Somolu Council Chairman; Hon. AbdulHamed Salawu ‘Dullar’, community leaders, religious leaders, and some other top political bigwigs in and outside the community.
According to research conducted in recent times, the leading causes of direct maternal mortality are Hypertension (27.0%), Sepsis (20.6%) and hemorrhage (18.7%), while anaemia in pregnancy (3.2%), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (3.2%) and Sickle Cell Disease (2.4%) are the leading indirect causes of maternal mortality Joinpoint estimates showed a statistically significant increase in MMR of about 3.4% per annum from 2211 per 100,000 live births in 2007 to 3555.6 per 100,000 live births in 2019.
Maternal mortality is a major public health problem in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) such as Nigeria and it is one of the strongest indicators of a country’s standard of living and maternity care.