Nigeria contributes 28% of the 280,000 maternal deaths and about 10% of almost two million stillbirths that occur annually across the globe. Evidence shows significantly higher odds of maternal deaths in urban Nigeria than in rural areas, especially in the south, due to poor road infrastructure, haphazardly built environments, traffic congestion and expanding informal settlements. According to research published in 2019, 82.
5% of stillbirths in Nigeria occurred in urban areas. I am a maternal health expert and co-authored two studies using Google Maps to accurately calculate travel time to obstetric care facilities in urban Nigeria. Over 50% of maternal deaths and stillbirths in Nigeria can be averted if pregnant women get access to critical maternity services.
In Lagos – the most populated city in Nigeria with approximately 16 million people – the odds of stillbirth and maternal death are significantly higher when pregnant women take more than 10 minutes to travel to a healthcare centre. Previous methods used to estimate travel time to emergency obstetric care have either used self-reported travel times or mapped journeys to the nearest facility. These methods have been shown to not fully reflect realities, especially in urban areas , which limits their relevance for policy and service planning.
In two studies recently published in The Lancet Global Health and Nature’s Communication Medicine , members of the OnTIME Consortium and Google pioneered an innovative approach.
