Upper East Region has few midwivies

Zuarungu (UE), Sept 22, GNA- Chiefs and people in some communities in the Upper East Region have expressed concern about the low numbers of midwives in their health facilities.

According to Naba Peter Adongo, Zuarungu Chief, Naba Atogboyenge, Sumbrungu Chief and Naba Olando Awuni, Naga Chief, only one midwife each is manning each health posts in their communities thus putting a lot of pressure on the health workers.

The chiefs spoke at separate functions organized by Participation Action for Rural Development Alternatives (PADA) on the Maternal Mortality Project being sponsored by Oxfam and implemented by PADA in the Upper East Region.

The Project which started in April 2012, at Zuarungu, Sumbrungu, Sapelga, Kanga, Naga and Gia, all in the Upper East Region, would end in March 2013.

The functions were organised as part of efforts to help the communities strategize on how to take ownership of the project after the departure of partners.

“The only Midwife in my health post has to stand up in the morning till evening without rest attending to the numerous pregnant women who attend the facility”, the Chief of Zuarungu intimated.

The Chiefs appealed to Government to empower the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to create more room for the training of Midwives to address the problem of the shortage of Midwives in the system.

They pledged to support the Traditional Birth Attendance (TBAs) and Community Health Care Committees (CHCs) structures which had been established in the communities and work to ensure that pregnant women access antenatal and postnatal care.

The Chiefs commended OXFAM, PADA and the GHS for the collaborative efforts at reducing maternal and infant mortality in the respective communities and indicated that as part of the sustainability of the project, they would ensure that their sub-chiefs support the structures to work effectively.

The TBAs and the CHCs on their part also pledged to work hard by constantly visiting homes, educating and sensitizing pregnant women on the need to visit health facilities for anti-natal care.

Mr Aaron Kampim, Project Office of PADA in charge of Health, expressed happiness about the effective manner in which the TBAs, CHCs, GHS and the Chiefs and people in the project communities had supported the implementation of the Maternal Health Project.

He charged the Chiefs in the communities to take ownership of the project and ensure that it is sustained as maternal health and child mortality was a major twin problem and that the GHS alone could not tackle it.

Some of the communities pledged to institute bye laws to deal with any family member who refuses to ensure that pregnant women attend antenatal or deliver at health facilities.

GNA