NGO organises workshop on maternal health
Hope For Future Generations (HFG), a non-governmental organisation, committed to the welfare of women and children, has organised a two-day training workshop on the provision of quality maternal, neonatal and child health care for traditional birth attendants (TBAs), volunteers and health workers in Breman Asikuma in the Central Region.
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The programme was organised with support from SIMAVI, a sexual and reproductive health project in Netherlands.
Sexual reproductive health
The sexual reproductive health project has currently been implemented in three districts in the country, namely, Ajumako-Enyan–Asiam, Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa both in the Central Region and Samoba District in the Northern Region.
Addressing the trainees, the Project Co-ordinator for Sexual Reproductive Health/or Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health (SRH/MNCH), Mrs Mercy Amokwandoh, reminded the participants that advocacy was not a one-day business, and, therefore, entreated them to devise lasting ways of ensuring quality health delivery in the area.
She expressed worry over the attitude of some pregnant women in the area who did not patronise health facilities for delivery.
“You would realise that a lot of women are not delivering at health facilities. they prefer either at home or with unskilled traditional birth attendants”, she said, adding that even though some of the traditional birth attendants are trained, the World Health Organisation (WHO) was advising against expectant mothers going to deliver at a pushing TBA facility.
Mrs Amokwandoh encouraged mothers to register at antenatal clinics when they got pregnant and seek post-natal care after delivery, adding that mothers should not stop immunising their children up to five years.
Essence of the workshop
Touching on the essence of the workshop, Mrs Mercy Amokwandoh said the group was being trained so that members could understand the health challenges in the area for them to be able to educate their people when they got back to their various localities.
“We are in Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District because a lot of the young girls in the area are getting pregnant. We don’t want to blame them; we don’t want to blame mothers or anybody. We just want to create the awareness. We want them to know that at this age, at this time, this is what you should expect as a young girl”, Mrs Amokwandoh explained.
According to Mrs Amokwandoh, adolescent reproductive health had been neglected for a very long time and children were always blamed for teenage pregnancies, whereas parents refused to educate them on reproductive health issues.
She said Hope For Future Generations was not only talking about teenage pregnancies but also sensitising the people in the area about the possible sexual transmitted infections (STIs) they could contract through unhealthy health practices.
Participants were grouped to discuss topics such as teenage pregnancy, abortion, parental neglect as well as delivering in the house.
Daily Graphic/Ghana