Wife of the Senate President and President of a leading maternal health Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) - Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA), Mrs. Toyin Saraki, on Tuesday shared her personal still-birth experience with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), in a move to create awareness of the direct and indirect costs of still-births in the country.

Saraki during the interview monitored in Abuja called for improvements in health education and access to primary healthcare, which she said were key elements to reducing still-births around the world.

According to her, Nigeria has the second highest estimated stillbirth rate, with more than 300,000 still-births in 2015 - of which more than half occurred during labour and birth.

Speaking to BBC Focus On Africa Radio Correspondent, Akwasi Sarpong, Saraki also disclosed how her personal experience of still-birth inspired her efforts, through the WBFA, to end stillbirths.

Saraki, who tragically lost one of her twin due to failures in the Nigerian public healthcare system, stated, "I was fighting for one life and bewildered how to mourn the other life... People did not know whether to congratulate or commiserate with me."

According to her, the unfortunate experience informed her decision to co-author the third report in the Lancet 'Ending Preventable Stillbirths' Series launched on 19th January, 2015, titled: "Stillbirths: Economic and psychosocial consequences."

In the Lancet report, Saraki and WBFA provided a unique perspective on stillbirths in sub-Saharan Africa; sharing interventions such as the WBFA Personal Health Records, the Foundation's emergency obstetric and newborn care training with Johnson & Johnson and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and their work on Respectful Maternity Care for new and expectant mothers.