Midwives cry for better service conditions

Abigail Kyei, a Public Health and Midwifery Consultant, has told Lordina Mahama to tell her husband and the government to pay midwives in the country better.

“If you want to speak to your father, you can speak to him through the mother. So Mrs Mahama, midwives in this country are working very hard. We call on the government to pay us better, recognise and praise our efforts,” she exclaimed.

She indicated that apart from their alleged poor conditions of service, midwifery training institutions in the country lacked the needed materials for effective teaching and learning.

“Most midwives work at hard-to-reach areas but their compensations within the health sector are nothing to write home about,” she added.

Mrs Kyei stated this during the national launching of the 2015 International Day of the Midwife in Takoradi on Tuesday.

The programme which had Lordina Mahama as the guest of honour was on the theme: ‘Midwives For A Better Tomorrow’.

She mentioned that it was incumbent on the government, being a major stakeholder and the biggest employer of most of the midwives, to provide the needed logistics to enable midwives to provide quality services.

“Bad roads hinder our work and when the equipment needed to do our work are not available, we are handicapped to do our best,” she lamented.

Mrs Kyei added, “It is sad when the poor women attend our facilities with National Health Insurance cards but we can’t provide the services the insurance promised them.”

She pointed out that men and women in the midwifery profession were poised to offer quality service and called on pregnant women to take advantage and call on midwives early enough to avoid preventable complications.

Mrs Mahama commended midwives for the great work they were doing to reduce maternal and infant mortality particularly in the rural areas.

“As a mother who had benefited from the services of midwives and other medical professionals, I will salute you and encourage you to do more.

She explained that the Lordina Mahama Foundation would continue to contribute to the development of poor children and women in both rural and urban areas by focusing on education and healthcare.

She indicated that it was also to augment efforts towards prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT).

Mrs Joyce Jetuah, President of the Ghana Registered Midwives Association, mentioned that her colleagues working in the rural and hard-to-reach areas continued to work under very harsh conditions to save lives.

“We know that if a mother dies while giving life, the light of the family is quenched and the effect cannot be quantified. We have pledged to keep the light burning, one family at a time,” she stressed.