Forty-three per cent of pregnant women in Ghana at risk

About 43 per cent of pregnant women in Ghana are often at risk of dying from anaemia, hypertension and other preventable health problems.

Since 1997, 19 per cent of these pregnancies involved teenagers.

Dr Jacob Kenneth Kwakye Maafo, President of Ghana Medical Association (GMA) said this in Tamale on Sunday during an outreach health programme, which forms part of this year's health week celebration taking place in the Northern Region and Afram Plains in the Eastern Region.

The programme under the theme: "healthy mother, healthy families", has attracted a team of 20 medical doctors and dental specialists, who will carry out public health education and free medical care to the needy.

The United Nations Children's Fund and the Ministry of Health and some pharmaceutical companies are sponsoring the programme.

It includes public health education on safe motherhood, child health, drug abuse among the youth, sexually transmitted diseases and oral health.

Dr Maafo said World Health Organisation estimates that 586,000 women die each year from causes related to pregnancy with 99.9 per cent of these deaths happening in developing countries.

The GMA President announced plans to train midwives and traditional birth attendants to prevent severe bleeding after delivery, obstructed labour, infections, unsafe abortion and other causes of maternal deaths.

He said the association is providing drugs, intravenous infusion, expendable items and medical equipment valued at 12.4 million cedis to support the outreach programme.

Mr. Joshua Alabi, Northern Regional Minister, who launched the week, commended the GMA for assisting the Regional Co-ordinating Council and the National Disaster Management Organisation in attending to victims of the recent floods in the region.

He tasked the association to seek ways of combating the re-emergence of diseases like yaws, chicken pox and small pox and to improve on research activities in eliminating strange diseases being detected in parts of the country.

Mr. Alabi said he was satisfied that there has been considerable improvement in the acceptance rate of family planning methods in the region, from 0.6 per cent in the 1970s to the current rate of 20 per cent.

"When most families accept family planning, we may be bearing children we can cater for, so that the phenomenon of street children would be reduced," he said.

Dr Sylvester Anemana, Regional Director of Health Services, who presided, said there is one doctor to 60,000 patients in the region and called on the authorities to post more medical officers to the area.