The plight of pregnant women in the Kpandai District

Riding on a motorcycle with the weight of a baby, quite a distance, just to get to the nearest medical facility; this is the stress a pregnant woman in the Kpandai District in the Northern Region has to go through to gain access to healthcare and or deliver her baby due to the lack of ambulances in the community.

The unavailability of these vehicles to serve the purpose of conveying patients, particularly pregnant women to the hospital is of great concern to inhabitants of the area; it poses huge inconvenience and in some cases, health risks for women.

These women have to share a single bike with two other persons; the rider and another person for support, in order to get to the hospital, the threat of falling off and or miscarriages is even more disturbing, and the terrible nature of the roads worsens the case.

In a short video filmed by Joojo Cobbinah, a journalist with JoyNews, one such expecting mother who obviously was in pain had to be sandwiched and conveyed on a motorbike to the hospital. She was only lucky enough to have been met by a group of helpers who offered to transport her to the hospital in their vehicle.

Residents are imploring government to come to their aid and provide ambulances to ease the burden of these mothers and to save them the danger of miscarriages.

Kpandai District of the Northern Region is one of several deprived districts in Ghana with outstanding issues including the lack of some basic amenities and education.

The District was carved out of the East Gonja District in 2008. Nine years on, the District is far from being called a developing area. Though some Districts in Ghana also lack some basic amenities, about 95 per cent of communities in the Kpandai District lack almost all the basic amenities for human development.

Lack of clean and safe water and bad road networks have been some of the community’s biggest worries over the years.