HEALTH:FIRST LADY QUIVERS AT NURSING MOTHERS’ TRAFFIC ADVENTURES

FIRST LADY QUIVERS AT NURSING MOTHERS’ TRAFFIC ADVENTURES

Edward Adeti’s Report, Upper East, Ghana

Ghana First Lady E.N. Mills

After spotting a number of bareheaded nursing mothers riding motorbikes on the Bolgatanga Highway upon her arrival in the Upper East Region ahead of a way-forward forum on maternal deaths in Ghana, cherubic-faced First Lady Dr. Mrs. Ernestina Naadu Mills has remarked with worry that the region’s women are brave but needlessly “are going beyond being brave.”

The highway bravado and traffic adventures of some nursing mothers ironically greeted the first ever official visit by the First Lady whose aim in the region coincidentally was to launch a regional campaign for the general safety of pregnant women and nursing mothers. The First Lady, who apparently had peeped through her own screens during a convoy drive on the highway and the main street in the regional capital (where motorcycles have remained the most widespread automobiles among youths and adults today), expressed fears that the most likely tragic consequence of riding without crash helmets particularly on nursing mothers and their infants just might scale up the already-worrying maternal death rates in the country.

She was speaking at the SSNIT Conference Hall in Bolgatanga, Upper East Regional capital, during an advocacy forum on the Campaign on Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa (CARMMA). The advocacy forum, which heralds the extension of the campaign to the district and community level, brought together district policy makers and traditional authorities under the theme: “Ghana cares: No woman should die while giving life.”

“I made the journey by road from Accra so that I could appreciate our green pastures. This morning, I noticed something on the road. I must say the women here are brave, because I don’t see it in Accra. I saw women riding motorcycles. So many of them. To go about their duties is good. But one that really shocked me was a mother, young mother, with a baby on her back, tied to her back, and another child between her and the steers. She was riding without wearing a protective helmet. Later on, I saw another mother with one child. I mean, that’s going beyond being brave. Life must be saved at all costs,” the seraphic-voiced First Lady told the solemn audience.

She underscored the urgent need to intensify efforts at ensuring the safety of pregnant women particularly in developing Africa. Her call comes as experts warn that Ghana will see 12,000 maternal deaths, 200,000 infant deaths and one million disabilities by the close of 2015 if interventions delay.

Statistics on “safe motherhood” made available by the Upper East Regional Health Directorate during the forum show that 50,000 to 100,000 maternal deaths occur yearly due to unsafe abortion with over 74 million unwanted or unplanned pregnancies occurring every year globally.

Recounting her own contribution since the national launch of the campaign in 2009, the First Lady said she had urged Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the Private Sector among other stakeholders to increase efforts and mobilise resources to accelerate the reduction of maternal mortality in Ghana.

“Building on one of the global campaign strategies of mobilising political commitment and support of key stakeholders including national authorities and communities to mobilise additional domestic resources in support of maternal and newborn health, I am here today to extend the campaign to the district and community level and also to dialogue, advocate and solicit your commitment to increase resources and societal change in support of Maternal Health,” announced Dr. Mrs. E.N. Mills.

The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr. Mark Owen Woyongo, in his welcome address noted that 77% of expectant mothers who suffer maternal deaths come from rural areas “where there is lack of skilled personnel like doctors, midwives, poor referral systems and high illiteracy rates with socio-cultural barriers.”

According to him, out of the 26 maternal deaths in 2011 so far in the region, 31% of the deaths are from Bawku Municipality whilst 34% of the same number are between the ages of 25 and 29 years. “Surprisingly, 54% of the mothers who died ever had one or two children, meaning that majority of them were married women. It is also worth mentioning that 23% of the maternal deaths were handled by doctors and 31% were handled by midwives whilst 9% were handled by trained and untrained TBAs,” the Regional Minister disclosed.

Whilst emphasising the need to build the capacity of staffs as well as orient and frequently monitor the Traditional Birth Assistants (TBAs), Mr. Woyongo announced that pickup vehicles and ambulances had been purchased with the help of the Regional Health Directorate to improve on transportation to the next referral levels.

Making a brief statement, Dr. Gloria J. Quansah Asare, Director of Family Health Division of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), said an alarming number of communities in the country “are losing mothers, wives, daughters, sisters and friends who die as a result of bleeding, complications of unsafe abortion, hypertensive diseases of pregnancy, obstructed labour, infections as well as indirect causes especially from malaria and anaemia.” She assured that improved access to skilled attendance at birth by a midwife or a doctor, emergency obstetric and newborn care and use of family planning and other quality healthcare would help curb “these painful deaths that lead to our unacceptably high maternal mortality.”    

The Representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr. Bernard Coquelin, made it known that the UNFPA was the lead UN agency in ensuring that the campaign achieves the MDG 5 by 2015 in Ghana. Dr. Coquelin said evidence all over the world had shown that implementing good policies and programmes such as Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (EmONC), family planning (FP) and skilled birth attendance (SBA) played a big role in reducing maternal deaths. He appealed to all Municipal and District Chief Executives to take a deep reflection and lead the local efforts at ensuring improved maternal and child health as well as reduction of maternal mortality.