“Merck More than a Mother” campaign in Nigeria
Nkemdili Okeke (not real name) is a secondary school certificate holder who got
married in 2011 at the age of 25, to a wealthy businessman in the South-East
Nigeria. Five years after marriage, she was yet to conceive and had been
subjected to dehumanising treatments by her husband’s family. Merck More than a
Mother launch in Nigeria by world's foremost pharmaceutical and chemical
company, Merck.
Merck More than a Mother launch in Nigeria by world’s foremost
pharmaceutical and chemical company, Merck. Particularly, Nkemdili’s
mother-inlaw had become a thorn in her flesh, daily raining abuses on her,
calling her all sorts of names, and even accusing her of being a witch that
eats up the babies in her womb.
hat’s not all. At other times, Nkemdili’s
mother-inlaw accuses her of ruining her womb, saying she had been into prostitution
and has destroyed her womb through incessant abortions. This went on and on for
years, that Nkemdili’s husband became pressurised by the mother to get a second
wife for himself. The claims were that Nkemdili was to be blamed for her
inability to conceive. However, on the advice of a neighbour, Nkemdili and her
husband, sought medical attention, and lo and behold, it was discovered that it
had not all been Nkemdili’s fault but her husband’s, as he was diagnosed to
have a watery and low sperm count, thus suffering from infertility.
There are
millions of Nigerian women suffering these forms of dehumanisation, for their
inability to conceive, and in most cases, the fault is usually laid on their
doorsteps, without the slightest knowledge that the men could be the cause of
the problems. Even, a recent statistics by the World Health Organisation, WHO
says more than 180 million couples (one in every four couples) in developing
countries suffer from primary or secondary infertility. WHO says infertility in
Africa is caused by infections in over 85 per cent women compared to 33 per
cent worldwide which emphasize the importance of prevention programmes in
Africa. It’s against this backdrop that world’s foremost pharmaceutical and
chemical company, Merck, has launched in Nigeria, its “Merck More than a
Mother” initiative aimed at combating infertility and the stigmatization
associated with it in Nigeria. The launch which took place first in Lagos and
then in Abuja, brought together women leaders, policy makers, parliamentarians,
academics, fertility experts among others to chart the way forward towards
combating, identifying and implementing strategies to improve access to
effective, safe and regulated fertility care in Nigeria and to define
interventions to decrease social suffering arising from infertility and
childlessness. The mind-engaging discussion at the launch saw as panelists the
Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Sen. Lanre Tejuosho; member, Parliament
of Kenya, Hon. Joyce Lay; President, Africa Fertility Society, AFS, Professor
Oladapo Ashiru; former President, International Federation of Fertility
Societies, IFFS, Prof. Joe Simpson and President, Nigeria Reproductive Society,
Dr. Faye Iketubosin. Others were the Head, Intercontinental Region, Merck,
Yiannis Vlontzos; President, North and West Africa, Merck, Dr. Karim Bendaou;
Chief Social Officer, Merck, Dr. Rasha Kelej; Commissioner for Health, Ogun
State, Dr. Tunde Ipaye; President, SOGON, Prof. Brian Adinma;
Secretary-General, SOGON, Dr. Chris Agboghoroma and President, IFFS, Dr.
Richard Kennedy. Also, at the launch were Chairman, Garki General Hospital and
Vice Chairman, Nisa Fertility Hospital, Dr. Ibrahim Wada; Vice President,
Africa Fertility Society, Dr. James Olobo-Lalobo among others. Speaking at the
launch, in Lagos, Chief Social Officer, Merck, Dr. Rasha Kelej, said the “Merck
More than a Mother” initiative is imperative in Africa as the consequences of
infertility are much more dramatic in developing countries and can create more
wide ranging social and cultural problems compared to Western societies,
particularly for women. According to Kelej, “A central difficulty associated
with infertility is that it can transform from an acute, private distress into
a harsh, public stigma with complex and devastating consequences.
“In some
cultures, childless women still suffer discrimination, stigma and ostracism. An
inability to have a child or to become pregnant can result in being greatly
isolated, disinherited or assaulted. This may result in divorce or physical and
psychological violence. “Through the “Merck More than a Mother” initiative, all
stakeholders together including women leaders, policy makers, parliamentarians,
academia, fertility experts, community and media will challenge the perception
of infertile women, their roles and worth in the society, both within and
beyond the medical profession in order to achieve a systemic shift in the
current culture of gender discrimination in the context of fertility care in
African societies and address solutions for change of mindset and upgrading the
health care services.” On his part, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Health,
Sen. Lanre Tejuosho affirmed that the stigmatization of women and mothers who
have infertility challenges, require the much needed attention, saying. “It’s a
fact that out of four Nigerian couples, we have a couple with infertility
challenges. This statistics means that infertility needs urgent attention and
we need to focus on how we can make health institutions accessible for infertility
management.
“Most importantly, there is a lot of stigma against women with
infertility challenges in Nigeria. We want to stop it. We also want to increase
the advocacy against the notion that it’s only the women that suffer
infertility. “People must know that 50 percent of infertility issues are caused
by men. We want to let the men to have the courage and also they must come out
together with their wives, to seek treatment and to ensure that the focus on
women must be directed accordingly, and not a misplaced direction. So, it’s
more about awareness and education.” Tejuosho added that there is plan by the
current administration at the centre to build over 10,000 primary health
centers across the country, noting that it will make primary healthcare
accessible to Nigerians. “Again, as legislators, we will ensure that enough
fund is captured in the budget to provide adequate facilities for these primary
healthcare centres,” he assured.
This is even as he added that “currently,
there is an introduction in the National Assembly, an Assisted Reproduction
Technology Bill, to ensure the law guiding technology of IVF, as well as
fertility intervention and surrogacy is well guarded, so that the owner of the
sperm or the womb will be the father or mother of the child and not the
surrogate mother.”
Tejuosho stated that there are also many other laws coming
up that will tackle the issues of inheritance for mothers that are childless or
have just females as children.
Similarly, infertility advocate and member Kenyan
Parliament, Hon. Joyce Lay disclosed that what inspired her to lead the
campaign against stigmatizing women with infertility issues in Kenya and Africa
was because she had a personal experience, having had difficulty having a child
after she got married. Lay said: “I had difficulty having a child after I got
married, the reasons are because I had complications earlier. I was pregnant at
an early stage, and going to give birth in hospitals not equipped resulted to
child birth complications for me. Later on. I developed problems with my
Fallopian tube and had to undergo surgery. Later on, I had more complications
which led to heavy bleedings and closure of my cervix. This led to another
surgery of removing my womb. “I couldn’t carry my child myself, so, when I got
the opportunity to get to the Kenyan parliament, I started advocating for at
least education, creating awareness, prevention and getting treatment for
infections.
This is because most men and women with infertility issues, are
caused by untreated infectious diseases. May be because they are not aware or
they are ignorant to go for medical check-up. “So, lack of information, as well
as lack of access to better medical and healthcare services contribute largely
to cases of infertility in Africa. As a member of parliament, I discover in
Africa, governments commit funds in the budget for family planning programmes,
but none for infertility. So, I have used this opportunity to ensure that the
Kenyan government come on board to realize that infertility is a big problem
and we all must be involved.” Meanwhile, as part of its efforts to take the
advocacy message across the country, Merck has also partnered with Future
Assured, the pet-project of wife of Senate President, Toyin Saraki. Recall that
the “Merck More than a Mother” campaign had successfully been launched in
Kenya, Uganda, among other sub-Saharan African countries.
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