Medical experts specialising in maternal health are urging women who delivered via caesarean section (CS) to allow a minimum of 24 months before getting pregnant again, stressing that the surgical scar on the womb requires sufficient time to heal fully before it can safely support another pregnancy.
The gynaecologists, who spoke to a health publication, cautioned that conceiving too quickly after a CS delivery puts both mother and baby at serious risk.
Potential complications include a weakened uterine scar, anaemia, excessive bleeding after delivery, poor foetal growth, premature birth, and in the worst cases, stillbirth.
Women with a CS history are medically considered high-risk, even if they appear to be coping well outwardly.
The experts also took aim at misleading social media trends, urging women to rely only on medically verified information rather than viral content that could endanger their health.
This comes against the backdrop of a growing online trend known as “two-under-two,” where mothers have children in very rapid succession a pattern doctors say could worsen Nigeria’s already alarming maternal mortality rates.
A Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Uyo, Prof. Aniekan Abasiattai, explained that the incision made in the womb during a CS must heal completely before any subsequent pregnancy.
If it doesn’t, the scar risks rupturing during a future labour a life-threatening emergency.
He added that no obstetrician would permit a woman to attempt vaginal delivery if she had not adequately spaced her pregnancies after a CS, meaning she would automatically face another surgical delivery.
Beyond the scar, he warned that closely spaced pregnancies also raise the chances of anaemia, gestational diabetes, placenta complications, and severe postpartum bleeding.
Women who are already anaemic, he noted, are particularly vulnerable to haemorrhage after delivery.
He also pointed out that women need time after childbirth to shed the weight gained during pregnancy roughly 12.5 kilograms on average before their bodies are ready to carry another baby safely.
Prof. Abubakar Panti of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, described short birth intervals as a significant public health concern in Nigeria.
He stressed that women should ideally allow at least 24 months between a birth and the next pregnancy, which effectively means maintaining about three years between children.
He also flagged the added burden on breastfeeding mothers who fall pregnant too soon, warning that the physical demand of simultaneously nursing an infant and carrying a new pregnancy can lead to preterm birth, restricted foetal growth, low birth weight, and even newborn death.
Prof. Panti identified poor uptake of contraception, cultural pressure to have children quickly, and late marriages as key drivers of dangerously short birth spacing in Nigeria.
He acknowledged that some women with fertility concerns may intentionally avoid spacing pregnancies out of fear that their fertility will decline with age but stressed that this reasoning does not outweigh the medical risks.
Both experts called on healthcare providers to make postpartum family planning counselling a standard part of care for every woman who gives birth, rather than treating it as an optional conversation.
They also urged the media and health workers to step up public awareness campaigns on the dangers of short birth intervals, particularly for CS mothers.