Safe motherhood campaign begins at Yilo Krobo

The Yilo Krobo Municipal Health Directorate is embarking on a safe motherhood campaign in the municipality to help reduce teenage pregnancy.

It is holding a series of activities including durbars to sensitise women and teenagers on the need to improve safe motherhood indicators which include antenatal registrants, skilled deliveries, postnatal registrants and family planning.

Mrs Rebecca Onyame, Deputy Director of Nursing Services (DDNS) at the Yilo Krobo Municipal Directorate of Health, during a durbar at Somanya, said the municipality had contributed to the high teenage pregnancy situation in Eastern Region and so it is collaborating with the Regional Directorate to reverse the menace.

She said the municipal health directorate had established adolescent fun clubs in all the 22 health facilities in the municipality that meet monthly to discuss issues concerning adolescent health.

Mrs Onyame said counseling services, family planning services and education in schools, churches and mosques as well as training of peer educators have been intensified to tackle the menace.

Mrs Augustina Nartey, the Eastern Regional Coordinator of Community Health Planning Services, said there was the need to ensure the safety of children and mothers and called on all to help achieve this goal.

She said the best form of family planning for teenagers to abstain from premarital sex, adding that, they should report pregnancy to their parents or go to the hospital for advice.

“Do not go to your peers for bad advice when you find out that you are pregnant, it might lead to your premature death,” she said.

Mrs Nartey said in 2013 teenage pregnancy in the region reduced to 19 percent, in 2014 to 17 and as at half year 2015, it has reduced to 14 percent.

Some of the mothers present at the event appealed to the health directors to check on activities of nurses at the various health facilities in the municipality.