Increase in maternal mortality in C/R worrying
Maternal mortality in the Central Region has shot up from 67 cases in 2015 to 90 cases in 2016, the Central Regional Director of the Department of Gender has revealed.
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Disclosing the startling statistics at a stakeholders training workshop on child marriage in Cape Coast last Thursday, Mrs Thywill Eyram Kpe said: “This should be of grave concern to us as stakeholders.
”The programme, which was supported by the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), was aimed at empowering stakeholders to understand child marriage, its negative effects and how to prevent it in their communities and organisations.
“Once these girls enter into such unhealthy unions, they are exposed to continuous unprotected sex with a man who may have multiple partners, increasing their risk of contracting STIs, including HIV/AIDS,” she said.
Data
She said data from the Ghana Health Service (GHS) collected from 5,106 pregnant adolescent girls and their partners indicated that 742 (14.5 per cent) of them were pregnant for men who were already cohabiting with other women while another 187 (3.7 per cent) were married to other women.
Mrs Kpe said although the region, through various stakeholder collaboration, had seen decline in adolescent pregnancy from 13,014 cases in 2015 to 12,048 cases in 2016, HIV/AIDS had continued to increase form 1.1 in 2013 to 1.4 in 2014 and 1.8 in 2015.
Worrying situation
The worrying situation, she said, brought into question the responsibility of parents, family heads and community leaders in protecting “our children”.
Mrs Kpe said the world was becoming a global village and people were educating their children to achieve higher laurels, with women getting into boardrooms as doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers and lady pastors.
“Unfortunately for us as a nation and region, while others are striving for girls to realise their dreams, we are seeing increase in life-threatening situations such as adolescent pregnancy, child marriage and their attendant consequences such as maternal mortality, obstetric fistula and HIV/AIDS,” she added.