24-10-2012
Narration: Looking
at the current health situation in the country, Ghana is far from achieving the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, a target set out by the UN in
achieving remarkable improvement in the area of health and sanitation. Whilst
other countries are recording appreciable gains in the area of maternal health
reduction, Ghana is still recording high maternal mortality at our various
health facilities, particularly in remote areas of the country. Contrary to the
UN target of achieving 175,000 per 100,000 live births for African countries,
Ghana is still running 350,000 live births per 100,000 live births, an
indication that should we continue to record high maternal deaths, our effort
to reaching the MDG 5 would be a mirage. This was made known by an official of
Oxfam, Mrs Clara Valentine Tigenoah at a political parties dialogue on
maternal health held at Bolgatanga. Correspondent Isaac Asare has sent this
report for Radio Ghana.
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Giving
an overview and state of maternal health situation in Ghana, Mrs Tigenoah said
the country health sector needs to redouble its effort to help improve maternal
health since access to maternal health continue to be a major challenge
confronting most pregnant women, especially those in remote areas of the
country. She said though maternal health
is free most people still find it difficult to visit the various health
facilities notwithstanding the benefits accrued from its accessibility. She
however appealed to stakeholders to assist the various community health
volunteers as well as the Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) in the discharge
of their duties. Traditional authorities, she moreover appealed, should serve
as advocators in the fight against maternal death. The Country Director of
Oxfam, Sebastian Tiah, said Oxfam as a humanitarian NGO has over the years championed
the cause of rural empowerment and had since its inception tailored its activities
towards bridging the gap between the north and south through sustainable
agricultural livelihoods, and free universal quality health care among others. In
the Upper East Region Oxfam has made tremendous progress in the area of
maternal health. Activities on maternal health he noted are exercised in six
communities in 3 districts of the region, namely Zuarungu, Sumbrungu, Sapeliga,
Tanga, Naaga and Gea. This is a result of high maternal death recorded in such
areas. As an interventionary measure,
Oxfam adopted some workable approaches to enable them enhance access to maternal
health. With this approach, Oxfam in 2011 recorded a massive reduction in
maternal death and is working hard to overcome poverty in the region. During
an open forum, participants identified poor road network and non availability
of trained midwives as some challenges bedeviling maternal health in the
region. According to them, the various MMDAs should consider providing
financial support for qualified students seeking admission into the health
training institutions, particularly the midwifery training colleges, so that
after completion they can stay back to support the TBAs in the communities. Moreover, parents should also encourage their
wards to enroll at the region’s health training institutions since those down south
are already chocked with facilities far overstretched. This way, more qualified
midwives will be stationed in the region to assist in skill delivery as a way
of reducing maternal and infant mortality. Political party representatives
present included the NDC, CPP, NPP, and the PPP. The meeting organized by Oxfam
in collaboration with PADA and the Ghana Health Service and attended by chiefs
and community health volunteers sought to engage the various political party
representatives to bring to the fore their policies and programs aimed at
improving maternal health in the country.
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