There are a total of 99 health facilities in the country with no excuse for mothers to miss their ante-natal clinics.

Health Ministry's Family Health National Advisor Dr Josaia Samuela revealed that accessibility is not the issue as they have 76 nursing stations and health stations out in the really rural areas and 20 health centres in peri-urban areas while those in the cities and towns have three divisional hospitals.

This is after revelations that close to 200 children under the age of 5 die each year in Fiji as a result of their mothers missing their ante-natal clinics.

Dr Samuela said out of the 200 deaths, majority is due to STIs and mothers do not realize that the longer they delay or miss their clinics, their babies will die within one month of their life from diseases passed on from the mother during pregnancy.