President John Dramani Mahama on Tuesday called for an end to preventable maternal deaths.
He said that no woman should die in the process of giving birth.
The President said this during the launch of the report of the Ghana 2025 Voluntary National Review (VNR) of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the Presidency in Accra.
This is Ghana’s third Voluntary National Review, following those of 2019 and 2022.
The report was led by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, the Ghana Statistical Service, and the National Africa Peer Review Mechanism.
President Mahama said Ghana’s maternal mortality rate of over 300 deaths per 100,000 live births was more than four times the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Target, which was regrettable.
“In some rural areas and other communities, it is even higher. This is a silent emergency, and we must improve antenatal care,” the President said.
“We must expand the number of CHIPS compounds (Community-based Health Planning and Services facility), increase the number of skilled birth attendants, and make maternal health services affordable and accessible.”
He said Ghana’s maternal mortality rate was approximately 300 per 100,000 live births; however, in some parts of the northern sector, it was almost 400.
“And we need to disaggregate and see how we can reduce the numbers in the areas where we’re not making much progress,” he said.
The President said that when the Dodowa Hospital was opened during his previous administration, for four years in a row, they had zero maternal deaths.
He said that the Dodowa Hospital became the best-performing in the whole of West Africa in terms of zero maternal deaths.
“And so we must make every single facility aim for zero maternal mortality. It’s a statistic until it is your sister or your wife or your relative, and so we say 300. Who are the 300 of the 100,000? These are real life, these are mothers, these are sisters, and others,” the President said.
“I remember that in 2016, we had 314. So I said, What’s this magic 300 number we cannot break? It is my hope that the next time we compile our VNR, we will break the 300 barrier and go down. The best figure is zero. And so I think we must put in more work.”
President Mahama said a complex array of things was responsible for maternal deaths in the country, such as delays on the part of ambulance drivers and bad road networks.
“I mean, in some places, it is bad. Just getting the woman from the CHIPS compound to the district referral hospital, where she can have a safe CS (caesarean section) is sometimes what leads to the mother’s death,” he said.
“And I think that we must see how we address all these linkages so that we can break the 300 barrier and move as swiftly as possible towards zero maternal deaths.”
Touching on the spread of HIV/AIDS, President Mahama called for a bold youth-led national conversation on preventing the rising HIV/AIDS infection rates among young Ghanaians.
“We’re also alarmed by the rising HIV rates, especially amongst our young people. This points to a failure in communications, stigma, and limited access to sexual health education,” he said.
“We need a bold youth-led national conversation on prevention supported by our schools, by our health workers, our parents, and the media. Prevention is essential, but empowerment is the key.”
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