Some cultural norms contribute to maternal mortalities
Maternal mortality refers to deaths due to complications from pregnancy or childbirth. According to UN inter-agency estimates, from 1990 to 2015, the global maternal mortality ratio declined by 44 per cent – from 385 deaths to 216 deaths per 100,000 live births.
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This translates into an average annual rate of reduction of 2.3 per cent. While impressive, this is less than half of the 5.5 per cent annual rate needed to achieve the three-quarters reduction in maternal mortality targeted for 2015 in Millennium Development Goal 5.
“There is nothing more painful than to lose a woman through childbirth,” my mother once told me when one of my primary school teachers lost a wife through tragic circumstance.
Although I was young when my teacher lost her wife and had little understanding of what my mother said, the reality dawned on me when I witnessed an incident at the Brong Ahafo Regional Hospital in Sunyani in 2015.
During one of my “local rounds” as a journalist in Sunyani, I visited the regional hospital for some information in relation to a story I was working on. When I got to the hospital, I saw a young man wailing and rolling on the ground.
Pathetic spectacle
When I enquired about why the young man was wailing, I was told he had lost the wife through childbirth. Gosh! I exclaimed. The man had lost her newly wedded wife through child birth. He cried and cried. I saw tears in the eyes of the women who had gathered around him. It was a pathetic spectacle.
I must admit that after witnessing that sad incident, my love for expectant mothers grew in size, and wished that no expectant mother would die through this bizarre circumstance. This is because expectant mothers play a critical role in ensuring the continuity of the human race.
However, I became alarmed when I realised that some of our cultural norms and traditions were likely to dash my wish of having no maternal mortalities in Ghana. I will tell you why.
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Betrothing
Betrothing is one of the key factors contributing to child marriage, which in turn leads to early pregnancy that also results in maternal deaths.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Ms Paulina Tangoba Abayage, a gender advocate and Director for the Western Regional Department of Gender, said child marriage was one of the prominent factors causing maternal mortality in the country.
According to her, because the girls who were married early had not developed good pelvis (the large bony frame at the base of the spine) to contain the pregnancies, most of them died during labour, especially when they did not get any medical intervention.
She said some cultural practices, such as betrothal, contributed greatly to the incidence of child marriage in most Ghanaian communities, pointing out that because betrothal was common in most communities in the country, “some girls are married through the customs as early as seven years”.
Taboos
She said some taboos also contributed to maternal deaths in the country and added that in some communities, when a woman was pregnant, she was not allowed to go to hospital for medical attention.
“We have so many taboos in our communities that prevent pregnant women from going to hospital,” Ms Abayage said.
She added that “even during pregnancies, the ‘dos’ and “don’ts” also contribute to maternal deaths, noting, “In some communities, when a women is pregnant, she is forbidden from eating certain foods, believing that such foods may cause her child to become a thief or have watery mouth”.
“In some communities, pregnant women are forbidden from eating snails, among other foods, with the belief that when you eat snails, your child will have a lot of saliva in his or her mouth so most pregnant women end up becoming malnourished due to these taboos,” she said.
Anti-hospitals
Ms Abayage said some expectant mothers did not go to hospital for medical attention due to their customs and beliefs.
“Some will say, in our house when you are pregnant, you don’t go to hospital, you only use herbs,” she explained, adding that “even when they go to hospital and they are given medication, they don’t take the medication due to their tradition”.
According to her, some families believe only in herbal concoctions, and because of that pregnant women from such families only take herbal concoctions.
“Some families have traditions that when they take concoctions made with tiger or lion bones their children will grow up to become like lions …and so they only boil such concoctions with lion and tiger bones to take during pregnancy,” she stated.
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First-born syndrome
Ms Abayage said “in some communities, when you are pregnant with your first child, you don’t go to that hospital. You have to be delivered at home for them to see whether you cheated on your husband or not”.
She explained that “they (people) believe that if you cheated on your husband, you won’t be able to endure the pains associated with childbirth”.
Ms Abayage said most of the time, they would keep the expectant mothers at home to go through extreme pains, which sometimes resulted in the death of the women in the circumstance.
Advice
She, however, said only education and attitudinal change could help to discourage some of the cultural practices that contribute to maternal deaths in the country.
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Ms Abayage has, therefore, called on traditional authorities to consider reviewing some of the cultural norms such as the “first child delivery syndrome” in order to reduce maternal mortality.