There is a deficit in the midwifery workforce in many communities where their services are desperately needed, Dr. Babatunde Ahonsi, the country representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Ghana, has said.
He has therefore recommended that more attention be paid to midwifery education and training to bridge the glaring deficits to save lives of women and newborns.
Dr. Ahonsi said this at the launch of this year’s International Day of the Midwife, in Cape Coast, saying, that well-trained and supported midwives in communities would help reduce by two-thirds, the current maternal mortality ratio.
This year’s celebration which, marked the Silver Jubilee was on the theme: “Women and Newborn, the Heart of Midwifery”.
Dr Ahonsi said Ghana needed to significantly invest in midwifery education and training to be able to achieve its dream of reducing maternal and newborn deaths to the barest minimum by 2030.
He said that when midwives were educated to international standards and worked within a fully functional health system, they could provide about 80 per cent of the essential care to women and newborns.
He praised midwives for their enormous contributions to the health of mothers and newborns and the well-being of entire communities adding, that access to quality health care was a basic human right and greater investment in midwifery was key to making this right a reality for every woman.
According to Dr. Ahonsi, despite the significant progress made in reducing maternal deaths from 760 100,000 live births from 1990 to 319 per 100,000 live births in 2015, Ghana could not achieve the Millennium Development Goal target of 190 per 100,000 live births.
Dr Ahonsi also noted that the country could not meet the MDG target because there were still not enough adequately educated midwives to support the health of women and newborns, and thus the need to scale up and strengthen efforts.
He said UNFPA would continue to work with both global and national partners and the Government to strengthen midwifery skills and capacities in Ghana.
Currently, the midwifery workforce, according to statistics from the Ghana Health Service (GHS) , stood at a little more than 5,000, while 1,268 graduated staff were yet to be posted.
–
Source: GNA