Stakeholders suggest improvement in maternal health delivery

Sogakope, (V/R) Oct. 23, GNA- Stakeholders on maternal health care in the Volta Region have proposed increased sectoral collaboration alongside improved delivery of the health sector to improve maternal health care in the region.

The stakeholders met under the aegis of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) at Sogakope in the South-Tongu District to provide input into the Government of Ghana and UNFPA Fifth Country Programme geared towards improving maternal health care. Other regions to benefit from the programme from 2006 to 2010 are Central and Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions. The stakeholders at the meeting included District Directors of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Gender Rights Campaigners, Social Workers, Officials of the regional Population office, Civil Servants and Journalists.

Recommendations made include the provision of communication link up equipment for the rural areas to enable pregnant women to reach help in adequate time, updating skills of health personnel as well as improving comportment of health staff. The stakeholders also suggested the need for the training of more midwives and other health professionals to offset the shortfall in the rural areas especially.

Other suggestions include the enactment of local bylaws to improve value systems with the view to improving morals leading to a more responsible sexual behaviour. On the role of the media, stakeholders suggested a multi-media approach, and not only the mainstream mass media channels, to enable the messages to reach targets groups clearly.

Mr. Makane Kane, UNFPA Representative in Ghana said strategies and activities should reflect the conditions of the region and not duplication of that of any other region. He said Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) remained important in maternal health care in a situation where professionals were not many and services hardly available in the rural areas.