Nigeria’s maternal health crisis may be doing more than costing women’s lives in childbirth — it may also be shaping a future national burden of diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease, according to a professor of perinatal obstetrics and gynaecology.
Delivering the 145th inaugural lecture at Ambrose Alli University, Professor Reuben Agbons Eifediyi said the conditions a child experiences in the womb can leave “a permanent biological signature” that extends far beyond birth.
Using Nigeria’s maternal mortality figures as the central warning, Eifediyi noted that the country accounts for nearly 20 per cent of global maternal deaths despite having about one per cent of the world’s population. He cited a maternal mortality ratio of 917 deaths per 100,000 live births, about 40,000 pregnancy-related deaths annually, and a lifetime risk of 1 in 22 for Nigerian women dying from pregnancy-related causes. He added that as many as 80 per cent of such deaths are preventable through cost-effective interventions.
Speaking on the theme, The Child is the Father of the Man, the professor argued that maternal nutrition, stress and illness during pregnancy can permanently programme the unborn child’s metabolism and physiology. Drawing on Barker’s hypothesis, also known as the developmental origins of health and disease, he said babies exposed to deprivation in utero may survive through biological adaptations that later increase their risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and heart disease when they grow up in more calorie-rich environments. Source
He said low birth weight should be treated not simply as a neonatal concern but as an early warning sign for adult non-communicable disease. According to the lecture, the fetus is “not a blank slate” and every nutritional deficiency or stressor in pregnancy may alter lifelong health outcomes. He argued that this makes pregnancy care a matter not only of safe delivery, but of long-term national disease prevention.
Eifediyi also linked major pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia, fetal growth restriction and preterm labour to what he described as defective placentation, saying the placenta is the critical junction between maternal health and fetal development. In effect, he argued, poor maternal care today may be helping to produce the chronic disease profile of tomorrow.
In one of the lecture’s strongest policy messages, the professor called for a shift from emergency-focused obstetric care to pre-conception and early pregnancy intervention. He urged stronger maternal nutrition programmes, earlier screening for high-risk pregnancies, the use of biomarkers for obstetric complications, and closer attention to the first 1,000 days from conception to age two, which he described as the most critical window for organ and brain development.
He also cited findings from research on Lassa fever in pregnancy at Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, where placental samples from infected mothers reportedly tested strongly positive for the virus, with severe maternal and fetal outcomes recorded in affected cases. The findings, he said, reinforce the need to treat maternal health as both an emergency issue and a developmental one.
“No society can attain true greatness when its women continue to die in the process of giving life,” he said, arguing that a healthy pregnancy should be seen as one of the most powerful forms of preventive medicine available to any country.
Vice-Chancellor Prof. Mrs. Eunice E. Omonzejie using the occasion to highlight the institution’s academic revival, research progress and growing public engagement.
Speaking on the theme of the lecture, “The Child Is The Father Of The Man: In Perinatal Obstetrics and Gynecology,” she said the topic draws attention to the importance of the perinatal period in shaping future health outcomes.
She congratulated Prof. Eifediyi on attaining the academic milestone and urged participants to draw lessons that would inform research, policy and practice.
Addressing members of the academic community, guests, students and friends of the university, Omonzejie described the inaugural lecture series as a vital academic tradition that showcases years of rigorous scholarship, research and professional experience.
The Vice-Chancellor praised the guest lecturer, Professor Reuben Agbons Eifediyi of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, for his outstanding contributions to medical science, especially in maternal and child health, as well as his dedication to teaching, research and service.
She said the university was steadily regaining its esteemed place in the academic community, citing the recent success of three Law graduates who earned First Class honours at the Nigerian Law School as evidence of improved quality and mentorship.
Omonzejie also highlighted other recent achievements of the institution, including the successful hosting of the 5th Annual International Conference by the Faculty of Social Sciences on artificial intelligence and emerging realities, and a health seminar and outreach programme organised by the National Association of Women Academics for staff welfare.