Doctor bemoans slack in family planning awareness

Cape Coast, Dec 5, GNA- Dr Seth Adu, an Obstetrics and Gynaecology Specialist at the Central Regional Referral Hospital, on Tuesday called on the government to place emphasis on, and take urgent steps to 93re-activate=94 family planning education and awareness in the country to facilitate enhanced health care delivery. He expressed concern that awareness about family planning, which among others, immensely reduces maternal mortality, improves life expectancy

and the quality of life in general, had gone down in the country. Dr. Adu, made the call at the opening of a three-day =91scientific session on maternal mortality' to disseminate information on 91World Health Organization's (WHO) new approved beneficial evidenced-based management of emergency Obstetric conditions' for medical doctors and midwives of the central regional health directorate, at Cape Coast.

About 100 doctors and midwives are expected to be updated about the WHO strategy, which involves the use of magnesium sulphate and cytotec drugs to control fits during pregnancy and bleeding after delivery respectively, considered to be the main cause of maternal mortality in the region.

Dr. Adu, who spoke on 91obstructed labour and ruptured uterus', stressed that these conditions, which he attributed to factors like prolonged labour, especially for women who have already given birth to many children, and unsafe abortion, should be things of the past and should not be allowed to happen in this age. He particularly, took the participants to task for their =93lack of interest=94 in family planning education, although they have been given training about it to help improve maternal health, stressing, =93We can't just sit down to see many of our patients dying because they did not take advantage of family planning=94. Dr Adu said it was imperative for family planning messages to be imbibed, not only to safeguard the health of mothers, but for the proper development of children so that they do not become liabilities to society.

He therefore tasked the participants to educate expectant mothers who come to them to take family planning seriously and to help them discard the notion that 93God would provide=94 when the give birth to children they cannot cater for, because 93God helps those who help themselves, and would not come down physically to feed anyone=94. The doctor, told them that it was important for them to endeavour to extract the requisite detailed information that would enable them to provide proper health care for expectant mothers. =93Your duty is to help ensure that risks associated with giving birth to several children are curbed. Our job is to coax, convince and explain the implications of delivering at home and having too many children=94, he declared.

Dr Adu also stressed the need for the participants and all health workers to be committed to their work and echoed calls on health personnel to refrain from leaving the country for greener pastures. He stressed that 93money is not everything and should not be the yardstick for everything. If you have it and have paid back what society has given you, it is okay=94.

=93You should at least serve your bonds before leaving=94, he admonished, adding that anyone with a conscience would be disturbed at abandoning the country for greener pastures. Dr. Charles Ntiamoah Takyi, Deputy Regional Director of Health Services in-charge of clinical care who opened the session, was happy that through interventions like 93active maternal deaths auditing=94, by investigating the causes of deaths and evolving solutions to them, and the provision of blood transfusion services, have helped to reduce maternal mortality in the region.

He said as a result, maternal mortality in the region, reduced from 800 per 100,000 births from about 10 years ago, to 101 per 100,000 births, last year, adding that this year, only 59 maternal deaths have so far been recorded.

He said the session was specifically focusing on midwives, because they have key roles to play in maternal health delivery, and need to be abreast of life saving skills and simple remedies that can be applied to safeguard the health of expectant mothers in the absence of a doctor.

Dr. Alfred Dzadey, also an obstetric and gynaecologist specialist and Dr Beth Awuku, Anaesthetic in-charge, both at the regional hospital, also took the participants through 91intra uterine fetal death' and =91anaesthesia in a critically ill patient respectively', with both urging the participants to take the requisite pre-cautionary measures to protect the lives of patients entrusted to their care.