More women die during child birth in Upper West

Wa, Sept 15, GNA - Dr Alexis Nang-Beifubah, Upper West Regional Director of Health services on Monday, said as many as 29 women died during child birth in the region alone last year. "Every year, several women, especially young women die during child birth and as at June this year, as many as eight women had died", he emphasized.

He said many children in the Region do not live to see their first birthday and equal numbers die before they reach five years. "This situation is similar elsewhere in the country, but it is worse in the Upper West Region". Dr Alexis Nang-Beifubah told media personnel at a day's health forum at Wa.

The forum was aimed at increasing media involvement in health issues and developing appropriate strategies to reduce the number of mothers and children, who die in the Region. Dr Nang-Beifubah said several measures had been put in place at global and national levels to reverse this trend.

Also, locally, similar measures had been instituted, but these seem not to be achieving the desired result, as women and children continue to die in unacceptable numbers.

Dr Nang-Beifubah lamented that most of the deaths were preventable and called for an active media participation in health issues. He said the Region needed 20 medical doctors to cater for the health needs and aspirations of about 600,000 people, but now have to do with only six doctors.

Dr Nang-Beifubah mentioned anaemia, infections and obstructed labour, as well as unsafe abortions among others, as some of the major causes of maternal deaths in the Region. He said the rate at which mothers die during delivery was worrying and called for the involvement of all stakeholders in the health sector to advocate for an improvement of health services in the Region. "Maternal injuries and deaths are not only medical, but are also issues of justice, the right to health and life", Dr Nang-Beifubah pointed out.

He called on the people in the communities to assets the performance and achievement of District Chief Executives by the level of maternal and child deaths.

Dr Nang-Beifubah advocated for a Regional Health Development Plan for Non-Governmental Organisations to reduce duplications. Madam Georgina Osman, Deputy Nursing Officer in charge of Public Health, expressed her concern about the high incidence of fistula cases among women in the Region.

She said 24 women who have fistula conditions have been screened and 21 of them operated on in 2007. Thirty four others were also screened and would be operated upon this year.