Fight against maternal mortality and morbidity to increase
The Government is to adopt an integrated approach to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity (R3M) through a collaborative effort. The approach will outline strategies and policy programmes by the ministries of Health, Gender Children and Social Protection and Education to meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) five on enhancing gender equality and empowering women and girls.
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The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, disclosed this in Accra when an international donor, Dr Senait Fisseha, Director of International Programmes at Susan Thompson Buffet Foundation, paid a courtesy call on her in Accra.
“I have made a case for the inclusion of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection in the R3M programme. People must see the R3M initiative as a reproductive health issue which is crosscutting”, she said.
According to her, even though the country had significantly made gains in reducing maternal mortality and morbidity by half over the last few years, it fell short of the required 75 per cent to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for 2015.
She attributed the situation to complications during pregnancy, excessive bleeding, unsafe abortions, use of the services of Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) in rural areas, and a general inadequacy of healthcare facilities across the country.
Strategies
“The expansion of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme to cover 200,000 people which has over 66 per cent of beneficiaries being females, means we can use that platform to reach out to the people on issues related to maternal health services”, she said.
Among other strategies, she said efforts are to be made to encourage and supervise delivery for all women so that complications during childbirth could be dealt with by qualified health personnel.
a senior associate and director of the World Population Council, Mr Placide Tapsoba, said the way forward was for the ministries of Education, Health, and Gender to collaborate through inter-ministerial meetings to have a holistic policy to deal with maternal health issues.
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He lauded the efforts of engenderhealth, Ipas, Marie Stopes International Ghana, Ghana Population Council and Willows Foundation Ghana for initiating programmes to fight maternal mortality and morbidity since 2006.
Background
The R3M programme was launched in 2006 to accelerate progress towards reducing maternal mortality resulting from unwanted births and unsafe abortions.
It provided financial and technical support to the fight against maternal mortality. Piloted in 17 districts in 2007, it expanded to totally cover the Greater Accra, Eastern and Ashanti regions.