More pregnant women in Kassena-Nankana District attend antenatal clinic

Navrongo(UER), Oct. 18, GNA - Ninety-eight per cent of pregnant women in Kassena-Nankana District in the Upper East Region attend antenatal clinic.

Thirty-seven per cent of them delivered at health facilities, according to a research conducted by Navrongo Health Research Centre (NHRC) this year.

A report on the research sponsored by the World Bank was presented at a stakeholders meeting at Bolgatanga at the weekend. It said most of the pregnant women who delivered at hospitals and clinics were aware of the Government's free obstetric care policy. The report attributed maternal death to unsafe abortion, excessive bleeding, retained placenta and infection.

It therefore, called on pregnant women to take antenatal care serious and attend hospitals and clinics regularly. The report appealed to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to collaborate with the communities to mobilize resources to acquire means of transport to transport pregnant women to health facilities during emergency.

It recommended the upgrading of health facilities and training of health personnel to provide basic emergency obstetric services. The report stressed the need to encourage pregnant women to register with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and provided with family planning services to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Dr Abraham Hodgson, Director of NHRC said the centre was mandated by Ghana Health Service (GHS) to research into health problems facing people in the northern parts of the country and inform policy makers on feasible interventions to improve health care delivery.

He said it had undertaken research in Vitamin A Supplementation Trial, Bed nets trial, Artesunate trials and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) which had been replicated in other parts of the country and yielding positive results.