EMBRACE Project makes progress in Upper East
Over the years, many attempts have been made to improve Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) care in sub-Saharan Africa. However, progress towards the attainment of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Four and Five, that respectively relate to reducing infant mortality and improving maternal health, had been slow in many countries within the region.
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The maternal mortality rate in Ghana, for example, remains high (at 380 per 100,000 live births), despite efforts made by the government and its international development partners to improve the situation.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and other leading global health agencies have been advocating some concepts within the context of MNCH over the last decade.
An initiative
There is one initiative that was implemented in the Kassena Nankana Municipality and the Kassena Nankana West District in the Upper East Region, between October 2014 and December 2015, dubbed Ensure Mothers and Babies Regular Access to Care (EMBRACE).
As of now, the initiative is yielding positive results, and the health status of pregnant women, babies and their mothers who benefited from that initiative and embraced it has improved.
The EMBRACE project was aimed at strengthening efforts to achieve the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by addressing, particularly, bottlenecks that impeded progress in Maternal New-born and Child Health (MNCH).
It was implemented by the Navrongo Health Research Centre (NHRC) with support from the University of Tokyo in Japan, the Department of Community and Global Health, the Ghana Health Service and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), among other collaborators.
Achievements
One key component of the project that is gaining impetus among women in the rural areas is the introduction of the Continuum of Care (CoC) cards which encourages pregnant women and lactating mothers to seek health care from pregnancy through to delivery and to continue such treatment six weeks after delivery.
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The CoC card concept is like a scorecard and pregnant women and mothers who regularly seek medical attention from health facilities are given a Golden star, while those who do not attend to their health regularly are given an orange star.
Owing to that, a significant number of women in the districts strive to achieve excellence in health care which eventually impact positively on the general health status of babies and mothers.
This means that a woman who scores golden stars throughout on her CoC card might have attended antenatal care (ANC) for at least four times before delivery, sought to be delivered by skilled birth attendants, sought post-natal care within 48 hours, seven days and six weeks after delivery.
Indeed, the concept of CoC has emerged as a new paradigm shift to addressing maternal, newborn and child mortality in the area. The CoC was adopted by Japan's new global health policy between 2011 and 2015.
Results
Figures from the NHRC indicate that post-natal care within 48 hours increased from about 52 per cent to 82 per cent while skilled delivery also increased and currently stands at 95 per cent within the project catchment areas.
At separate durbars held at Manyoro and Kayoro in the Kassena Nankana Municipality and the Kassena Nankana West District, respectively, to disseminate key findings since the implementation of the project, the Coordinator of the EMBRACE project, Mr Francis Yeji, pointed out that the first country in Africa to have welcomed the project was Ghana.
According to him, CoC among pregnant women in the Navrongo area had increased from as low as 14 per cent to 73 per cent due to the introduction of the EMBRACE project.
"We are now reaching out to more women and their babies, making it possible for us to achieve positive results in maternal and infant health care," Mr Yeji further stated.
The Chief Medical Officer and Public Health Physician of the NHRC, Dr John Williams, noted that excessive bleeding and hypertension were among the many complications that killed women during delivery.
He stated that the first week of a newborn’s life after delivery was most critical, and every care must be taken to ensure that the baby survives.
Challenges
The Director of the NHRC, Dr Abraham Oduro, said the centre had been operating in the Navrongo area for the past 25 years, indicating that although the centre had been able to deal with a significant number of diseases affecting people in the area, issues bordering on the survival of new-born babies and pregnant women were the main challenges facing the research centre.
The acting Kassena Nankana Municipal Health Director, Madam Elizabeth Mba, described the project as very timely, as the area used to record high maternal and infant mortality rates in the past years.
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The Kassena Nankana West District Director of Health Services, Madam Mary Stella Adapesa, indicated that the EMBRACE project had inculcated in pregnant women the need to prepare themselves well medically before delivery.
"I am highly elated to inform this gathering that health facility delivery at Kayoro has increased from 63.9 per cent in 2014 to 72.4 per cent in 2015; the project has also helped to improve on the documentation and utilisation of maternal, neonatal and child health services," Madam Adapesa intimated.
Beneficiaries
Some deserving beneficiaries of the project were presented with bars of Key soap and other items to encourage them to continue patronising the project.
One of the beneficiaries, Madam Lydia Songojega, said the EMBRACE project had enabled her and other women to regularly visit the health facilities which had made a positive impact on their health status.
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