GHS partners PATH-Ghana to reduce neonatal deaths in Ashanti
Health-related organisations have joined hands with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to implement the Make Every Baby Count Initiative (MEBCI), a project sponsored by the Children Investment Fund Foundation of the United Kingdom (UK).
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The project aims at contributing significantly to the MDG 4 by reducing the national newborn death rates from 32 per 1,000 live births in 2011 to 21 per 1,000 live births by 2018, which is in line with a Ghana National Newborn Health Strategy and Action Plan (2014-2018).
Reducing neonatal deaths
The 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey showed that Ashanti Region had been recording the highest neonatal deaths with a neonatal mortality rate of 42 per 1000 live births compared to a national average of 29 per 1000 live births.
The partnership, which began in July 2015, seeks to provide selected health facilities in the region with essential newborn care and appropriate interventions to address asphyxia, infection and premature death by 2018, as a step to 90 per cent safe delivery of newborns.
Training for providers
At the final training session of the providers in Kumasi chaired by the Nkwantakesehene, Nana Boakye Yam Ababio, the Ashanti Regional Director of Health Services, Dr. Alexis Nang-Beifubah, recalled that between September and November 2015, the Directorate set out on a facility mapping and assessment in 56 MEBCI-focused facilities in the region.
The assessment, he explained, was to find out the causes of high neonatal deaths in the region and later in February 2016, the core findings of the assessment were shared.
He said the directorate realised that only 24 out of 56 core facilities had an area designated for the care of the new born and that 50 per cent of providers caring for the newborns had not received any formal training in newborn care during the year prior to the initiative.
Agents of change
He said as part of the initiative, influential community members had been identified to serve as agents of change at the community level to help improve the understanding and create awareness of the newborn care services.
He mentioned that some of the community members who were described as "Newborn Champions" were representatives of the traditional leadership, the clergy, and non-governmental organisations.
He lauded their efforts, saying that through their advocacy efforts, a maternal waiting home had been established near the health facility in Bosome Freho to house expectant mothers as they approached their expected dates of delivery.
Meeting MDG 4
The Chief of Party of PATH-Ghana, Dr. Patience Offei, said the MEBCI had also highlighted the need for parents and newborn babies to maintain skin-to-skin contact, a low-cost way of keeping the newborn warm.
Dr. Offei commended the GHS and the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) for their continued efforts to support the MEBCI, and also commended health workers who had been trained in newborn care for sharing knowledge and practices with colleagues in other regions leading to increased application of the MEBCI approach.