Creative Storm Network premiers Maternal Health Channel on GTV

Creative Storm Network, a non-governmental organisation with focus on reproductive health, on Thursday premiered its maiden series of documentary and talk show on its Maternal Health Channel on GTV.

The searchlight of the documentary was on Keta in the Volta Region where one Charity Gbemaya, 28, lost her life after a prolonged labour, which lasted for four days.

The programme revealed the staffing problems of hospitals in the Region and logistics inadequacy.

At the Keta Public Hospital where Charity died, only two doctors were on duty to take care of the packed out-patient department.

There was also no blood bank and an ambulance to save the lives of a dying expectant woman like Charity.

A medical doctor at the facility who was captured on screen said it took about four to five hours to get an ambulance to the Hospital to save the life for instance, of a bleeding pregnant woman.

He said a bleeding woman would die within one-and-half hours, so at times there was no need to wait for the arrival of an ambulance.

During the talk show, the mother of Charity called for a radical change in the way pregnant women are cared for in the hospitals and recalled how she was handled safely by a traditional birth attendant at home to give birth to her deceased daughter and other siblings.

The programme was attended by a cross section of people mainly with relevant backgrounds such as journalists and medical professionals, who expressed their views on how to prevent maternal and infant mortality in the country.

They touched on the brain drain of medical professionals to greener pastures and the need for an even distribution of medical staff across the country, attitudinal change and good work ethics as well lack of medical logistics to facilitate good health care.

Dr Kwesi Owusu, Chief Executive Officer of Creative Storm, said at Salaga in the East Gonja District of the Northern Region, a doctor attends to about 500,000 people sometimes including critically ill patients who have no option than to join long queues.

He said it is wrong for more than 200,000 women to be disabled through child birth worldwide.

Dr Owusu called for renewed efforts in Ghana to achieve the Millennium Development Goals on maternal and child birth in 2015 and beyond.