Community action needed to overcome maternal deaths

Post- Partum Haemorrhage (PPH) is one of the leading causes of maternal deaths in Ghana needing community action to overcome.

The first six minutes were crucial to the survival or death of a pregnant woman who suffered this condition, Dr Isaac O. Koranteng, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist said at an engagement with health personnel and community leaders on the “PPH Prevention and Management Strategy for Ghana,” in Ho.

PPH is the condition, in which women in labour bleed excessively and could die within two hours if the bleeding was not staunched quickly and professionally.

Time is of essence in such emergencies.

The consensus of the forum was that success against PPH was outside the hospitals and required greater community engagement and involvement including the family.

Emergency systems such as ambulances, other reliable means of transport and emergency primary drugs and efficient communication must be available in or very close to communities to manage such situations expeditiously before professional medical intervention is sought.

Dr Koranteng explained that PPH could not be predicted on account of the risk factors, because two out of three pregnant women with PPH had no identifiable risk factors.

He said the most risk factor arose when the placenta preceded the baby during labour or when the placenta separated from the baby before it was born.

Other risk factors included distended uterus, prolonged labour, history of previous PPH, severe pre eclampsia and eclampsia, anaemia, emergency caesarean section delivery and retained placenta.

Participants, who were from the Biakoye and Krachi-East Districts and the Volta Regional Health Directorate, drew action plans to tackle the problem based on the most critical PPH challenges peculiar to their areas of operation.