Re visited: Mother’s dilemma whose responsibility?

Childbirth is joyful news to all parents in general but how far does this joy last?
In Ghana our Primary Care system does not provide for free maternity care for the poor who need the services most. Most parents prepare for their childbirth in style, which is what every woman would wish for. Sadly, one only has to read our newspapers and the story unfolds. There are many mothers in hospitals currently unable to go home because of unpaid maternity bills. Mothers' inability to pay for their hospital bills even adds more to the bill and even being labelled or stigmatised because of their poverty.

Whilst in Britain and the rest of the now developed world have also experienced these hiccups in Ghana and therefore have moved on. Ghana on the other hand is still going backward with no provision earmarked in the budget for onset of their pregnancy till birth and even beyond.

Why are there such inequalities when it comes to maternity care in Ghana? As many of us know in Ghana some ladies are not so fortunate and are often abandon by their partners. The irony is that not only does the birth of their child bring an added stress but also the emotional abuse and domestic violence some women go through with. Whilst a labouring mother is not only thinking of the loss of a partner and a bread winner but she is also thinking maternity bills that await her after the labour. Many are fully aware that they have no money to pay for.

In addition to these problems, mothers would are also thinking of having to feed their children, pay rent and the last thing on poor new mother's mind to pay bills. Our Government should address this health inequality as a priority when it comes to planning for our National Primary Health Care System.

Perhaps Chief Executive of Korle-Bu Teaching hospital and the Minister for Health should be flagging this issue of concerns to the Government.

Compared to what new mothers enjoy in the developed countries African mothers have a raw deal. It could be argued that motherhood is like a punishment in the underdeveloped countries rather than the joy it brings.
Any one in the medical profession whose responsibility are with children and families in the U.K would feel rather sorry for mothers in Africa experiencing raw deal during their most vulnerable stage in their lives.

Who helps our vulnerable mothers?

Is the Government seeing this as an area of grave concerns?
It is obvious that women are at their very lowest state, physically and psychologically after childbirth anyway. Yet some have to think of where the family next meal is coming from? We read in our newspapers that the hospital authorities in Ghana detain mothers for failing to pay their hospital bills.
Is this what we call “equity of care”? Does the African Union have any policy on this particular issue as our European counterparts with their excellent welfare system for all their citizens?

Are there been any quarterly monitoring, reviews and evaluations of the maternity delivery of services by the Government at all? Or perhaps any reviews in partnership with parents, the maternity management as to how this critical situation could be tackled in the most effective and efficient way. How do we measure quality standard in Ghana? Do we have an annual audit of the performances of every department in our hospital to critical analysis our practices?

Since the 1960's Ghana Maternity Care delivery of services has gone down hill.
It is about time that, the Ghana Government makes maternity care adequately acceptable for vulnerable mothers in Ghana and Africa as a whole.
Furthermore the health of the population is crucial to the economic development of any country hence the significance of this article.

The introduction of the NHIS has come too late however would help to start a sort of free antenatal care or even free maternity care and free health care to all under 18 years one hopes.

It is totally wrong to detain such vulnerable mothers when it is clearly obvious that they would not be able to pay their maternity bills.
This is exactly how situation in Britain was once upon a time, until the introduction of the National Health Service (NHS) in the 1950's. Why can't we emulate some of the best practice of NHS has offered its population.

Some mothers, who go through such hard life, most likely have no good earning husbands to make them feel special for bearing their child. There is no reward for these mothers from the state let alone their husbands. Our system is actually failing these vulnerable mothers. We have no child protection policy, no welfare package for the most vulnerable and no routine post natal follow up package with childbirth. It is not surprising that most of such mothers go through postnatal depression but yet again our system has no services to help the postnatal depressed mothers. This is catch “22” situation is it?

Ghanaians in Diaspora are actively helping in certain key areas of concerns, however, the bus stop with the Government, NGO's communities , DCE's as well as and everyone. Also the Minister of Health also encourages initiatives which could perhaps help these grave concerns! To date it appears we have a long way to go in terms of seeing any real progress on the corridors of our maternity hospitals.

There is no need to judge any individual as such however writing to highlight areas that we as a nation could improve upon to improve maternal health.