Super midwives use torchlight phones to deliver babies.

Women in rural areas often have their babies with the light of a dim torch light, increasing the chances of maternal and infant deaths, as the rural areas lack electricity to aid the safe delivery of a child and protect the life of the mother.

Deborah Ezra, a member of the Nigeria Nurses and Midwives, NANNM, lamented the poor situation under which the women in rural areas have their newborns and the dire conditions under which the midwives work.
At the celebration of the International Midwives Day on Monday at the Rockview Royal Hotel in Wuse 2, Abuja, Ms. Ezra said on too many occasions she handled deliveries using the torch light of a mobile phone.
She listed power supply as one of the various major challenges in her work as a mid wife in various rural areas where she has been posted to serve.
Mrs. Ezra called on government at all levels to invest in midwives as a frontline to achieving the Millennium Development Goal 4 and 5, which are to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health respectively by 2015.
Nigeria currently has one of the highest cases of maternal mortality in the world with about 142 deaths daily according to official statistics.
The country leader of an international non governmental organisation that promotes s*xual and reproductive health rights of women, Ipas-Nigeria, Ejike Obi, praised midwives and encouraged them to key into family planning programs in the country stating that Nigeria still depends on midwives to improve maternal, child and newborn health in the country.