By Godfred A. Polkuu
Bolgatanga, May 17, GNA-Madam Monica Sadungu, Upper East Regional Public Health Nurse, Ghana Health Service (GHS), has called for collaboration among nurses and midwives in the Region to reduce maternal mortality.
She said if midwives attended to expectant mothers, especially in rural health facilities and needed to refer to higher facilities, there was a need for effective communication between them and their counterparts at the receiving facilities.
“When we collaborate as nurses and midwives on cases we manage and need to refer, we have to properly inform our colleagues in the next facility. When that happens, they will be well-informed about the patient and continue with the care,” she said.
She emphasized a need for nurses and midwives at receiving facilities to give feedback on patients’ conditions to the referred facility.
Madam Sadungu, who is also a midwife with decades of experience, said this at a stakeholder engagement during the sharing of an audiovisual documentary on Maternal and Child Health (MCH) innovations in the Region.
The meeting was organized by the Participatory Action for Rural Development Alternatives (PARDA), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) on health, with technical and financial support from Oxfam in Ghana, an international NGO.
Madam Sadungu attributed some maternal deaths in the Region to the inability of some midwives to refer to the previous obstetric history of pregnant women to enable them to appropriately render services.
“So, this call is not only for midwives but all nurses across the various facilities. With teamwork, we shall succeed,” the Public Health nurse added.
Dr Michael Wombeogo, Executive Director of PARDA, said if officials of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) worked in a team with stakeholders in the health delivery system, maternal mortality would significantly be reduced if not prevented.
He said PARDA since 2009 started the MCH programme, which was implemented in eight Districts and in each District, was implemented in three communities totalling 24 communities in the Region and the stakeholder engagement intended to share achievements and impact of the programme with officials of the GHS.
“I remember in 2014, Upper East was leading in maternal and child mortality reduction in Ghana, and it was all about what we were doing differently in the various communities in the districts.
Dr Wombeogo said if the GHS could upscale and improve on what was started, maternal and child morbidity would be reduced to meet Sustainable Development Goal Three.
He advocated men’s participation in the entire pregnancy cycle of their partners, saying “Men cannot carry a pregnancy, but they must support their partners to carry the pregnancy with love. Whatever love they show to their pregnant wife, the same love is transferred to the unborn child.
“So, the importance of the man in the life of the pregnant woman cannot be underestimated, and that is why we want to advocate that the presence of the spouse through ante-natal Clinic, labour and through delivery is very significant,” he said.
Mr. Mohammed Mahamud, Programme Manager, of Accountable Governance of Oxfam in Ghana, said the objective of Oxfam was to ensure that there was no injustice anywhere in the world and noted that Oxfam believed injustice anywhere was injustice everywhere.
“So, when we provide this kind of support, the idea is to first provide access to the excluded and marginalized communities and also to show to people that there are solutions to dealing with the problems that we encounter in our communities,” he said.
Mr Mahamud noted that the initiative was not intended to fill gaps but to show the government the way to deal with the issue of MCH, “So when we found that there was an issue to do with MCH in Upper East, we came out with this package together with PARDA.
“And the aim was not just to give them money to fill the gap that government had left, but to tell government actors that this is one of the ways we can deal with MCH issues,” he said.
GNA