Anaemia among pregnant women high in Sekyere East
The Sekyere East District Director of Health, Dr Justice Ofori-Amoah, has raised concerns about the rising cases of anaemia among pregnant women in the district.
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He said a lot of pregnant women had been reporting to the district hospital with pregnancy-related anaemia, particularly at week 36.
“If you come to the district hospital here in Sekyere East, which serves Sekyere Kumawu, Sekyere Afram Plains, part of Juaben and Sekyere South, anaemia among pregnant women is on the high and it is a cause for worry, especially at week 36.
“And if at week 36 the mother is anaemic, chances are that during birth, we can go into complications,” he said.
Antenatal
Dr Ofori-Amoah raised the concern last Tuesday at the closing ceremony of World Vision Ghana’s (WVG) Improved Feeding Practices Project in the Sekyere East District of the Ashanti Region.
The project was to reduce malnutrition among children within the first 1,000 days of their life and also to help pregnant women to have a safe delivery.
The District Health Director thus advised and encouraged mothers that “as soon as you become pregnant, do well to report to the hospital so that we can put measures in place for you to have a boost in your haemoglobin level to reduce any maternal death.
“If we can do this as a district and as a nation, then maternal mortality will be highly reduced or eliminated entirely,” he explained.
Appreciation
Dr Ofori-Amoah was grateful to the project for the support to the district in improving nutrition among children under five, equipping the community members with income-generating skills and ventures and also supporting the health directorate through capacity building and the provision of hospital equipment to provide better health care to the people.
He appealed to the community members to take charge of the structures left by the project and ensure that they become sustainable.
Satisfaction
The West African Region Strategy Evidence and Learning Director of WVG, Richard Nii Okai Okai, expressed satisfaction with the results of the project, which he said were impressive.
“The evidence we have seen on the grounds in terms of deaths related to malnutrition has reduced, knowledge of mothers on how to improve the feeding of children within the first 1,000 days, which is the critical age for the development of the child, since the child builds the right immunity at that age, has increased, and from our engagement with the Ghana Health Service in the district, they have indicated that disease incidence and the reported cases that they used to have within the past three years have drastically reduced,” he said.
The project was a collaboration between the World Bank, the Japanese Government, through its social development fund, and World Vision.
The three-year project also brought an end to WVG activities in the district after 23 years of operating there.
