Healthy beginnings require good roads

Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures.

This is the theme for World Health Day 2025.

The theme for this year’s celebration touches a very important issue that all men must be interested in for the sake of their mothers, wives, sisters and daughters and their own sake as husbands, fathers, brothers and sons as well.

It is a reminder to the whole world that a hopeful future for all depends on the health of mothers and babies, as these members of society are the foundation of families and communities.

While it is known that nearly 300,000 women die during pregnancy or childbirth and more than two million newborns die within their first month of life, the chilling part is the preventable nature of most of these deaths.

This means that most of the deaths that occur among women during pregnancy or childbirth happen as a result of being trapped in situations which could have been avoided or prevented with timely and effective medical care, public health interventions or other measures.

In order to understand these situations, Thaddeus and Maine developed the three delays model.

They identified three critical phases (during pregnancy and at birth) which can have direct consequences on the survival of the mother and baby: delay in the decision to seek care (First Delay), delay in identifying and reaching the health facility (Second Delay) and delay in receiving appropriate treatment at the facility (Third Delay).

Countries where relatively few to no lives are lost during pregnancy or childbirth have paid the heavy price of dealing with these delays. Political will and huge investments have not been withheld because of the invaluable worth of women and children.

A fourth delay, which was identified by Macdonald, emphasises the need for communities to take responsibility for maternal mortality and figure out communal solutions.

These delays come up in every discussion about maternal and newborn deaths. There is, however, one bottleneck that has remained outstanding. 

Roads, transport

It is about our roads and transport system. Over the years, duty bearers have done well to invest in both rural and urban roads, but more still needs to be done.

Consider the Kwame Nkrumah “Dubai” interchange among others, for instance, which has come to ease the heavy traffic situation that bedeviled the roundabout for years.

It is a relief to now travel through “Circle” in Accra seamlessly, considering the hours of perspiration even in air-conditioners, fuel burning endlessly, engines overheating and priceless time lost enduring tortoise-pace traffic in those days.

It was not uncommon to hear shouts and honking from drivers irritated by other road users and hawkers, creating more chaos.

It is the joy of easy travel on good roads that will translate into maternal and child survival if all our major rural and urban roads and network systems are prioritised.

Access to health care influences the decision to seek care early. 

This decision does not become a drudgery as it does when one has to travel painfully on a bad road.

Early

Early care seeking, in turn, results in the execution of interventions early enough to promote survival. Good roads enhance emergency care by enabling responders to reach life-threatening situations in good time.

The reduction of travel time and cost of accessing healthcare is a must for all. Quality of life is markedly enhanced as a result of good roads because pregnant women and their families can joyfully access essential services, amenities and recreational activities, whether in rural areas or urban areas.

Bad roads hamper trade, commerce and tourism, which are necessary for improving living standards and healthcare outcomes.

"Good roads are not just infrastructure; they are a lifeline to maternal health, connecting women to essential care and reducing the tragic toll of preventable maternal deaths," (Anon).

The writer is a Child Development Expert/ Fellow at Zero-to-three Academy, USA.

E-mail: nanaesi_19@yahoo.co.u