Pito linked to 'alarming' premature births in Upper East - Report

Experts have linked intake of pito, a cheapest-selling locally brewed beer in northern Ghana, by pregnant women among a number of risk factors to the “alarming” incidents of babies born prematurely in the Upper East region.

The brownish beverage, widely considered the ‘palm wine’ of the North and best sipped from a dry calabash, contains as much alcohol as may cause expectant women who partake in the intake to hobble into the labour room way ahead of time, according to medical experts.

And of deep worry to the health authorities, who spoke to Starr News in the regional capital, Bolgatanga, is the never-ending stigma of prematurely born infants being called “spirit children” and unloved in their homes because of some life-threatening disabilities that often come with preterm births.

“It’s quite alarming. It’s quite alarming,” stressed a sad-looking Dr. Gillian Bogee, Head of the Newborn Care Unit at the Upper East Regional Hospital. “In a day, we can get up to two preterm babies in the region. Usually, when they come to the hospital, you ask them. I wouldn’t talk about smoking, because hardly would you see our women smoking in this part of the country. But when you ask them, do you drink alcohol, they will say ‘No’.”

“But when you ask them, ‘Do you take pito?’ They say ‘Yes’. ‘So, how many calabash of pito do you take in a day?’ They can tell you, ‘Maybe four, maybe five or maybe every day I do take two calabash of pito’. And that also contains alcohol. And that can also be the reason why they are having these preterm deliveries in the region,” she said.

The celebrated medical officer made this known when the Participatory Action for Rural Development Alternatives (PARDA), a non-governmental organisation into maternal and child health promotion, organised a durbar at Sumbrungu, a suburb of the regional capital, to mark the World Prematurity Day in the region. It was a day many observers took time to brood over the unjust stigmatisation and rejection newborns, trademarked “spirit children”, suffer as a result of the preterm deliveries they know absolutely nothing about.

“Vaginal infections can also trigger a woman giving birth to a preterm baby. So far, the teenagers are dominating, the teenagers are quite more [among mothers with premature babies]. Women with domestic violence, long standing hours, women that go to the farm working all day, stress— all these things can lead to [preterm deliveries]. If you are someone who has ever given birth to a preterm baby before, the tendency of you having a preterm baby is also possible,” she added.

The big burden’ of preterm babies

Not all babies born earlier than the expected nine months do survive. And among the newborn survivors are those who, as a result of preterm deliveries, cannot live a ‘normal’ life, according to specialists.

“When you look at the statistics, preterm babies contribute to under-five mortalities in the world. In 2015, we had one million deaths in fifteen million cases of preterm babies all over the world. Even though some of them might get saved, some of them might also have problems in future— problems like developmental milestones, cerebral palsy. But that doesn’t mean that all of them get these problems.

“The other thing is the psychological trauma the mothers or the parents go through. They become demoralised they don’t even want to have babies again because they are afraid the subsequent babies might also be preterm. It’s quite stressful. And the stigmatisation is there. People still refer to such babies as spirit children in the region. Even though there are some steps put in place to save these babies, I would say the best way of solving the problem is prevention. The babies were born too soon. They are very small but they are with big souls. All that they need us to do is to help them live, to help them thrive,” Dr. Bogee stated.

PARDA sends out volunteers

Speaking to journalists at the close of the event, PARDA’s Project Coordinator, Samuel Ngumah, disclosed that some health volunteers had been engaged and trained by the organisation to promote antenatal and postnatal care attendance in their respective communities.

“We also have community health volunteers that we’ve trained. They enter into the various houses to make sure that pregnant women visit health facilities regularly. We are ensuring that no woman delivers at home, that no woman gets complications as a result of not attending antenatal care services, that we don’t get malnourished children, that we don’t record maternal deaths at the community level, increase skilled deliveries and increase the practice of exclusive breastfeeding so that we, together as a nation, can achieve the Sustainable Development Goal number 3— to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages,” said Mr. Ngumah who spoke on behalf of PARDA’s Country Director, Dr. Michael Wombeogo.

The event, held at the Sumbrungu Health Centre, saw child-bearing women dominate attendance as key speakers took turns passionately to drum home the relevance of the global theme for this year’s World Prematurity Day: “Let them thrive!”