Ghana’s First Lowest Maternal Mortality Rate

NEWS COMMENTARY DISCUSSES GHANA’S ACHIEVEMENT IN THE FIGHT AGAINST MATERNAL MORTALITY AND LOOKS AT MEASURES TO FURTHER REDUCE THE CASES IN LINE WITH THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS.

Ghana keeps making strides in the world economy, this time in the health sector where she has recorded its first lowest maternal mortality rate. Maternal mortality is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of the termination of a pregnancy irrespective of the duration or site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management.

Ninety nine percent of maternal deaths occur in developing countries with only one percent happening in developed countries. Maternal deaths happen for two reasons; a direct obstetric death, which is caused by complications that develop directly as a result of pregnancy, delivery or the post-partum period; an indirect obstetric death which is due to existing medical condition that are worsened by delivery or pregnancy. Despite the progress made by Ghana, it however still falls short of global targets for reproductive, maternal new born, child and adolescent health envisaged to reach a maternal mortality rate of 70 per 100 thousand live births by 2030.

At the opening of the third maternal, child health and Nutritional conference in Accra June 26, Ghana was applauded for the magnificent feat. It came to light that with its current pace of reducing maternal mortality, Ghana could only reach 210 per 100 thousand live births by 2030 judging from its 2015 maternal mortality rate of 319 deaths per 100 thousand live births. Maternal mortality remains a priority under goal 3 of the sustainable development goals because majority of maternal deaths are preventable. It said that about three quarters of all maternal deaths are caused by post-partum haemorrhage hypertensive disorders, such as pre-eclampsia, infections, unsafe abortions and other delivery related complications.

In theory, all of the major causes of maternal deaths can be treated with effective and timely clinical interventions. In practice however even if a woman manages to access pre-natal care and deliver in a health facility with a skilled birth attendant, poor quality of care can be life threatening. It has been found that non-communicable diseases also play an important role, contributing to underlying causes of deaths that occur during pregnancy, delivery and the post-partum period. There are also those risk factors that contribute to maternal death long before delivery. These include place of residence, socio-economic status and race or ethnic group as well as institutional factors such as national response allocation, health system infrastructure and political accountability.

This makes it imperative for our health authorities to tackle those within their purview. Issues like lack of ambulance, hospital beds, drugs and all others that contribute to safe delivery of our women either in hospital or at home. Giving birth is a natural inclination and nothing must stand in the way of our women when attending to God-given call. No woman must face any psychological trauma when pregnant or giving birth.

As we commend the Ghana Health Service for the enviable feat chalked up, we need to remind them of the need to endeavour to build on the work of pasts administrations by completing and furnishing hospitals, medical centres and clinics initiated by them. This will largely give access to our pregnant women to safe delivery. More training and refresher courses need to be given to traditional birth attendants in unserved areas of the health delivery chain.

It is heart-warming information by the Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Nsiah Asare that government is putting professional midwives at all health centres closer to the people to handle basic obstetric care, training more professionals and providing the needed logistics to help meet the SDG target of reducing the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100 thousand live births, which is of course attainable.

BY JUSTICE MINGLE, A JOURNALIST.