The Northern Regional Health Directorate has identified an increase in maternal mortality as a major setback in promoting reproductive health in the region.
A breakdown of statistics indicated that 212 maternal deaths were recorded in 2012.
Fifty seven of such cases have so far been recorded for the middle of 2015.
It is anticipated that the ratio could escalate underlining the Northern Regional Health Directorate’s call for enough resources to intensify advocacy on the significance of antenatal attendance.
The Regional Health Director, Dr. Jacob Mahama attributed the worrying situation to expectant mothers’ apathy towards antenatal attendance.
““We are of course worried because we expected that at the end of the year we would have gotten may be 40 or less that was our prayer but unfortunately half year we have already 57 deaths which is a source of big concern for us: so we are doing all that we can to find out what has gone wrong and how we can actually improve the situation.”
Dr. Jacob Mahama told Citi News his administration had widened its scope on maternal health advocacy.
He commended poverty alleviation Managers, SEND-Ghana for implementing a project aimed at training community champions to serve as Ambassadors on maternal health promotion in their localities.
“For a workshop like this where we are training community champions to improve the adoption of healthy behaviors and new born care it is a welcome decision.”
SEND-Ghana’s Programmes Manager, John Nkaw reiterated the organization’s commitment to overturn the situation through a project called “Improve”.
“SEND-Ghana is implementing a project called improve and improve simply means improving maternal mortality through participatory governance.”
“As a goal of the project we seek to contribute to effective delivery of maternal health services in Ghana and progress towards the achievement of the MDGs five which seeks to reduce maternal mortality across the implementing states.”
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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana