OUR MOTHERS DESERVE BETTER (DEC 23, 2010)

THE high incidence of maternal mortality has been one major scar on the conscience of the nation’s health sector. With mortality rates at such high levels, the introduction of the free maternal care was a big relief and has helped reduce the rate of maternal deaths in the country in recent times.
Perhaps, the global nature of these deaths led the United Nations to declare the reduction of high maternal mortality as part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The MDGs give a central place to maternal health and gender equality and MDG 5 — improving maternal health — is often called “the heart of the MDGs” because the attainment of the other goals revolve around it and if it fails, the other goals will also fail.
Maternal mortality is a global issue and the concern for reducing it stems from the fact that at least 583,000 women die each year from the complications of pregnancy and childbirth. The alarming situation is that almost 90 per cent of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
The situation in Ghana is equally gloomy, with an institutional maternal mortality rate of 250 per 100,000 live births. Reducing maternal and neonatal mortality has been a challenge in Ghana over the past decades, as many more women continue to fall prey to this problem, in spite of the efforts by the government, development partners, the private sector and civil society.
Therefore, news from the Northern Region of 81 expectant mothers dying from January to November this year, is very worrisome. It appears to the DAILY GRAPHIC that such deaths have become so common that it is no longer part of the human equation.
We note that some of the reasons for the high mortality rate in the region include the cultural practices, deplorable roads and the delays in bringing such pregnant women to hospital.
But the question is: What then is the role of the community health service personnel, whose role is to, among other things, undertake public education and offer support to households?
It cannot be that 81 people will die and yet no action is taken to avert the situation. The point is, these challenges of lack of education and the deplorable roads would still be with us at least for sometime to come.
However, pragmatic steps and actions need to be taken, and quickly too, to avert our mothers dying needlessly.
The DAILY GRAPHIC also takes this opportunity to appeal to the District Assemblies and the Regional Co-ordinating Council to, as a matter of urgency, address the infrastructure deficit to ensure access roads to some of these towns.
This again brings our attention to the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) and the need to speedily resource this outfit to start the process of designing solutions to the problems of the three northern regions.
Much too often, we take the lives of the ordinary Ghanaian for granted. We dare say, if among the 81 deaths was the wife of one high-up public servant, the hospital would have been given a facelift and resourced to deliver.
Happily, the DAILY GRAPHIC notes with gratitude the support given to the hospital by Dakpema Naa Dawuni Mohammed Alhassan, a chief of Tamale. Individuals can do so much; but it behoves the government through its agencies to be up and doing.
Such reports only draw us back in terms of meeting our Millennium Development Goals and question whether the country is serious about addressing this very cancerous challenge.
We need to be up and doing.