The Maniac of Maternal Mortality in Northern Ghana

By Paul Achonga Kwode

Child birth in Africa and in the Northern Ghana in particular is considered a
joyous period in the lifetime of families and the society in general. Children are
usually welcome with lots of smiles and celebrations both for the new born baby, the
mother and the entire family. Child birth is such a cherish moments in families such
that couples who fails to get one is negatively branded. Children in African homes
are said to be gifts or blessings from God just as women are considered greater
assets to families because it is the child who would continue the family tree while
at the same time bringing unity and happiness to African-Ghanaian homes. However,
such happy moments are turning sour these days due to deaths of either the child or
the mother. The climax of the celebration of the child which is usually the
outdooring is of late turning into anti-climax with the tragic death of the baby and
the mother
Recently, the Northern Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service had
indicated that 96 women died during birth in 2009, 91 in 2008 while 115 women died
in 2007 and all these deaths occurred only in the northern region, the Upper Regions
also have their stories to tell. Ghana’s maternal mortality rate has been estimated
at between 1400 and 3900 yearly due to pregnancy-related complications as against
500,000 women who die through childbirth worldwide.
The death rate of women at delivery is increasingly unacceptable in the country
especially as the globe draws closer to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of
accessible, quality and affordable health care for all by 2015. Varied interventions
have been made by the government, development partners and NGOs all aimed at meeting
the target set for the MDGs.
Lately, there have been so many concerns raised in Ghana about the increasing
deaths by women as result of their quest to get babies. It was a national concern
when the MP for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini lost the wife through child birth and
this awaken the minds of Ghanaians that maternal mortality was stirring at us in the
face to the extent that there was the need for the country to have taken a crusade
against it. Realistically, it would not have been easy for an MP to loose the wife
so easily through child birth since it was preventable death and this again confirms
the fact that maternal death was getting out of hand.
Another case in point of maternal death is the death of the little Vaah’s at the
Lister Hospital in Accra and another also occurred in the Ketu South District
Hospital where a 27-year old Dzifa Agbofortsi was allegedly left to bleed to death
on her hospital bed unattended to three days after she lost her baby. Sadly too is
the reported 200 mothers dieing in Elembele District through child birth. These
cases and several others have all been blamed on the negligence of health workers
who have taken an oath to safe human life at all times however, that is not to
indicate that they hold the key to life and death but they matter most to fight
preventable deaths.
These are cases that occurred in the cities where people are assumed to know their
rights and could defend their rights when trampled upon and at least be able to
decipher what is right and what is wrong but come to think of it, what can an
illiterate follow from Manyoro, Namoo or Bunkpurugu could do about their rights when
some of them do not even know their rights?,

POSSIBLE CAUSES OF MATERNAL MORTALITY IN NORTHERN GHANA

Maternal deaths have been attributed to so many factors but that of the three
northern regions are exceptional exacerbating ranging from poverty, inaccessible and
unavailable hospitals, bad road networks, unqualified health personnel, negligence
on the part of health personnel and other negative customary practices all of which
are contributing factors to the increasing rate of maternal deaths.
It is an open secret that with exception of Yendi, Walewale and Buipe, the rest of
the districts in the Northern Region are not connected any reliable tarred roads
with most of the district far away from the regional capital, Tamale where the
biggest hospital, the Tamale Teaching Hospital is located. These are district
capitals which are said to be deplorable of roads network, one can then whether what
would be happening to women in pregnancy complications in a village under districts,
the mother and baby must as well be dead before reaching the nearby health post. The
life of the two still hangs in the balance because reaching the hospital only is not
a guarantee of safe life considering the inadequate health kits available.
Even at the Teaching Hospital, conditions pertaining there leave lots of mothers
to either die during child birth or loose their new born child. For instance, the
hospital records about 15-20 births daily with only about three or five midwifes
attending to them and one could imagine the huge burden on them to give quality
service. An eye witness accord at the maternity indicates a very deplorable and
unhygienic labour ward at which mothers and their new born are welcome. The least
talk about other illegal practices capable of killing mothers and their children
prematurely at the Tamale Teaching Hospital, the better. It is no secret that nurses
of that hospital collect monies for ante-natal attendance and delivery though such
treatments are free.
One notable fact affecting maternal death is the lack of education and knowledge
on the part of most women and their families arguably on the high illiteracy rate in
the country.
Most couples still resort to the customarily practice of the traditional native
birth attendant, a situation that cannot guarantee safer delivery at this world of
modern medical care. One other fact is the danger involved in the use of traditional
native doctors for birth control. Most of them are illiterates who know nothing to
the complexity of modern medi-care and there should therefore be measures to train
these native doctors properly since they have come to stay.
It has also been acknowledged that some mothers resort to orthodox means of
terminating their pregnancies because most of the pregnancies were unplanned and the
ability to take good care of the pregnant woman and the unborn child is often a
headache resulting in all measures to terminate the pregnancy at the earliest stage.
Some try and failed to succeed and in that case, the pregnancy results in other
complications which could affect the mothers and the unborn contributing to the
maternal mortality.
In a meeting organized by the UNFPA for 21 African Traditional and Religious
Leaders in Sokoto in Nigeria on their role in reducing maternal mortality, the
Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar admitted that the
major that leads to the rapid increase in women’s death during child birth is the
denial from access to basic health care during and after child birth stressing that
adequate health care education must be given to African women to drastically reduce
the trend.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

The MDG four which is reducing child mortality and goal five of improving maternal
health have similar orientations in terms of their policy directions and
implementations and therefore both must be tackled simultaneously because there
cannot be improve child health if the mother was dead.
Maternal deaths in the Northern part of the country could be reduced if qualified
and dedicated nurses, midwifes and doctors are ready to serve humanity in a
professional manner. Logistics and refurbishment, building of more hospitals at
least two in each districts and the training of more nurses, midwifes, doctors and
other health personnel to be able to adequately attend to patients at the right
time. Health care must be accessible to all with equal special care in a qualitative
and professional manner. Standards in health care provisions must be strictly
adhered to and they must equally be motivated in terms of remunerations.
Until the road networks in the country are properly constructed and accessible to
all parts of the country, the efforts to reduce maternal mortality would be a
mirage. Beside the financial commitments of government towards the health sector
thus if government’s budget of health is inadequate as has often been the case,
efforts would be baseless and wasteful. Efforts to improve the health sector must go
hand in hand with education since without education as is often said, (for lack of
knowledge my people parish), all would come to square one. Government indeed has a
huge responsibility but individuals and cooperate entities have a role to play in
this direction such that hopes would be achieved at the end of the tunnel.