Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi: ‘No Woman Should Die Giving Life’ as WARDC Expands Maternal Health Campaign

For Prof. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, the fight to prevent women from dying during childbirth is not a new conversation. For more than two decades, her work through the Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) has focused on addressing the systems, information gaps and barriers that can place women at risk.

Now, she is calling for renewed government action to prevent deaths from postpartum haemorrhage, one of the serious complications that can occur after childbirth.

Speaking during a recent community outreach on Tranexamic Acid (TXA), Akiyode-Afolabi called on the Federal Government to commit stronger resources towards preventing maternal deaths associated with postpartum bleeding.

“Women who are supposed to contribute to our nation’s GDP now die due to a preventable challenge,” she said.

The outreach is part of WARDC’s ongoing work under the TRANSFORM project, which focuses on improving awareness and access to TXA for women experiencing bleeding after childbirth.

Postpartum haemorrhage can become life-threatening when it is not recognised and treated promptly. TXA is a medicine used by health professionals to help control severe bleeding, and its early use after postpartum haemorrhage has been recommended by the World Health Organization.

WARDC’s current campaign is taking the conversation beyond hospitals and health professionals and into communities.

According to the organisation, its intervention has reached more than 38,000 people across over 170 communities in Lagos and Ibadan through community sensitisation, dialogues, town-hall meetings and other awareness activities. The campaign is targeting 50,000 people across more than 100 communities.

Akiyode-Afolabi said the scale of the maternal health challenge requires sustained systems rather than temporary attention.

“So postpartum haemorrhage should not be a touch-and-go challenge; there have to be structures that will be in place to continually address it,” she said.

The organisation is working with women’s groups, youth groups, traditional and religious leaders, health workers and other community stakeholders to improve understanding of postpartum haemorrhage, encourage timely access to healthcare and increase awareness of the role of TXA in managing severe bleeding after childbirth.

A key part of the campaign is ensuring that information reaches women before an emergency occurs. WARDC has also called for stronger integration of TXA into maternal healthcare systems, including ensuring that health facilities have access to the medicine and that health workers are appropriately trained in its use.

For Akiyode-Afolabi, the issue is ultimately about ensuring that childbirth does not become a preventable cause of death for Nigerian women.

“For the last 23 years, we have been working to ensure that no woman dies after giving birth,” she said.

Her advocacy places maternal health within a broader conversation about women’s rights, healthcare access and the responsibility of institutions to en