21 community maternal health experts trained in Bolgatanga

A Regional level training for 21 community maternal health experts from seven districts of the Upper East Region has taken place in Bolgatanga. 

The training was organised by SEND Ghana, an NGO with financial support from the Christian Aid and the European Union.  

About 50 participants were taken through strategies aimed at improving maternal health and new born care. 

The community health experts comprising Traditional Birth Attendants, chiefs and queen mothers were equipped with the requisite knowledge using communication tools including flip charts. 

The Programmes Officer of SEND Ghana, Rachel Gyabaah, said the training has become necessary considering the increasing rate of maternal deaths in the region. 

She noted that there is the need to strengthen and improve maternal health delivery using community volunteers. 

Since Ghana became a signatory to the millennium declaration to improve access to health care and reduce poverty, government in partnership with other health related organizations have undertaken initiatives geared at meeting the minimum targets set under the Millennium Development goals.

Though some appreciable strives have been made towards the realization of these goals, attempts to attain MDG 5 which is aimed at reducing maternal mortality seem not to be yielding the desired results. With the pace of progress, the country is likely to reduce maternal deaths marginally but will eventually miss out the MDG 5 benchmark of reducing maternal mortality by October this year.

The regional level training for the community maternal health champions was to deepen community engagement and equipping communities with knowledge and skills to enable them to adopt good health practices and better health seeking behaviours related to pregnancy and childbirth as well as newborns at the  community level.

This way, community members will be able to recognize the dangers associated with pregnancy.

The beneficiary districts include Bawku Municipal, Bolgatanga Municipal, Kassena-Nankana West, Talensi as well as Builsa North and south.

The Programmes Officer of SEND Ghana, Rachel Gyabaah, gave more insight into the training. She said the overall objective of the training was to address some of the key bottlenecks hindering the effective delivery of maternal health services with focus on obstetric new born care, family planning and skilled delivery.

The Deputy Director in charge of Public Health, Madam Olivia Achuliba, said despite vigorous community engagements on maternal and child health issues, the region continues to record high maternal deaths. She expressed the fear that the trend could increase over time if conscious effort is not made by the maternal health champions to intensify its public education. She outlined the rate of maternal deaths in the region, emphasizing the need for pregnant women to report early at the health facilities.

Madam Olivia further indicated that the slow performance in reducing maternal health mortality is attributed to preventable causes and mentioned bleeding, infections, pregnancy induced hypertension, unsafe abortion, anaemia and obstructed labour as some of the factors. She, however, charged the community health champions to support and educate women and their families during pregnancy.

In an interview, the queenmother of Tanga in the Bawku West District, Beatrice Awinot Akpandaa, re-emphasized the urgency for families especially men to support pregnant women before, during and after labour.

GBC