Story By: Henrietta Afful
The Executive Director of the National Population Council, NPC, Dr. Leticia Adelaide Appiah says the prosperity of any nation starts with the birth of people.
“Healthy births are foundations of prosperous nations” Dr. Leticia Adelaide Appiah said, adding that a country cannot be prosperous if most newly born babies have health complications. This is because it has financial implications on the country.
Based on this, she said timing and spacing of births must be taken seriously for optimal outcomes.
Speaking on the topic ‘why is population a health issue’ on the Breakfast Show on GTV, Dr. Leticia Adelaide Appiah, said Ghana’s performance in the 2017 Maternal Birth Report indicates that about 48% of its births were labelled as “avoidable high risk” which has an adverse effect on the country.
She said teenage pregnancies and early child birth accounted for Ghana being placed in the ‘avoidable high risk’ category.
Dr Adelaide Appiah said these ‘avoidable high risk’ pregnancies could have been prevented and urged Ghana to do more to curb teenage pregnancy.
“You look at countries where maternal mortalities are reduced and they have reduced the avoidable high-risk pregnancies” she said.
Comparing Ghana and Asia, Dr Adelaide Appiah said whereas Asia has 7 per 1000 births due to teenage pregnancy, Ghana, on the other hand, has over 140 per 1000 births resulting from teenage pregnancy.
This implies that for every 1000 births in Ghana, 140 of them representing 30% were as a result of teenage pregnancy.
The effect on the country according to Dr Appiah, is high population growth and its financial implications.
She noted that taking care of children with special-needs comes at a cost, time consuming and psychologically draining.
Dr Adelaide Appiah noted that for Ghana to have a healthy population, there is the need for a multi sectorial stakeholder engagement to help manage the population.
She called for the abolition of child marriage and the implementation of family planning policies to incentivize good behaviour.
She said Rwanda is doing well in population management and Ghana should take a cue from it.
The Executive Director of the NPC said population management and family planning must be made central to national and economic development.