The Director of Primary Healthcare and Disease Control in Kwara State, Dr. Afolabi Folorunso, yesterday urged women to take ante-natal care serious, saying access to ante-natal services and their utilisation prevent morbidity and maternal mortality among pregnant women and nursing mothers.

He spoke at the end of a project dissemination meeting of the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI) on ante-natal care services in Ilorin.

"It is important that every pregnant woman should know and be able to recognize possible danger signs in her and the unborn child during pregnancy and when to seek prompt help from a qualified health care provider", he said.

Represented by Dr. Michael Oguntoye also of the state Ministry of Health, Folorunsho noted that a woman dies from pregnancy or child related complications in every two minutes on the globe.

He added that 90 per cent of preventable deaths occur in developing countries, including Nigeria.

Folorunsho said the Gateway Project of NURHI was one of the timely interventions to address the challenge of maternal deaths in the state. Also speaking, the NURHI project director, Dr. Moji Odeku, stressed that ante-natal care services and family care are key to national development. She said the gateway project was aimed at discussing successes recorded by NURHI in antenatal services.