A non-governmental organisation, Maternal and Reproductive Child Healthcare, has called on the government at all levels to implement policies that support the health and nutritional needs of children with birth defects in the country.
The appeal was made by the founder of the organisation, Mrs Olubunmi Aiyedun, during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, on Thursday.
The paediatric nurse described birth defects as a wide range of abnormalities of body structure or function that develop prenatally and can be identified before, at birth or later in life.
According to her, with over seven million newborn babies recorded every year in Nigeria, there are proportions of those with birth defects, hence the need for quality data and government policies.
“That is why we are calling on government, partners, NGOs and grassroots organizations to sit and produce quality data and implement policies that can drive interventions for children with anomalies.
“The government own the people, so they have the primary responsibility to make policies, because if we have policies that recognize children with special needs, then there can be interventions
