Samira Bawumia fights maternal mortality

The second lady, Samira Bawumia, has embarked on a nationwide campaign to reduce to the barest minimum – if not completely – fatality associated with child birth.

The avoidable phenomenon is said to be responsible for many deaths among women – a situation which health officials find distressful because with the appropriate response it can be reduced to the barest minimum.

Mrs Samira Bawumia has floated a health project to fight this occurrence, an assignment which has kept her busy in the past few days, culminating in the launch of the ‘Safe Delivery Project.’ It is managed under her umbrella – The Samira Empowerment and Humanitarian Projects (SEHP). The project is especially fashioned for women in deprived parts of the country and seeks to reduce maternal and neo-natal mortality in the rural areas.

SEHP is a non-profit NGO and aims at reducing maternal and neo-natal mortality from the current reported level of 319 deaths per 100,000 live births to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals’ target of 70 per 100,000 live births.

Second, the project aims to augment the efforts by the government to reduce neo-natal mortality (newborn deaths) from 29 per 1,000 live births to 12, in keeping with UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

She launched the project last week at Salaga in the East Gonja municipality of the Northern Region where the canker is prevalent. It was under the theme, “Promoting Safe Deliveries and Ensuring Healthy Infants: Securing Our Future.”

Speaking at the launch, Mrs. Bawumia said over the next few years, SEHP would seek to provide over 100,000 well-resourced birth kits to expectant mothers in Ghana.

The kits, she explained, contain medicines and supplies (anti-haemorrhage prophylaxis, pre-natal and post-natal vitamins and mineral supplements, medicated soap, gauze swab, cord clamps, cord sheet, sterile blade, delivery mat, cord ties, sterile gloves, combine dressing, baby hat, name tag, cord sheets and methylated spirit), which would all be distributed by trained community-based volunteers and health personnel to 100,000 expectant mothers in the worst affected communities in the country.

“The SEHP Safe Delivery Project aims to contribute to the reduction of maternal and neonatal mortality through training, education and the provision of well-resourced birth kits to expectant mothers in the worst affected communities across Ghana. It is also a comprehensive approach to tackling the problem of maternal and neonatal mortality,” the second lady stated.

She added, “The main objective of this project is to improve the chances of survival of mothers and newborns, by addressing at least 3 main causes of maternal and neonatal mortality particularly postpartum hemorrhage (bleeding), hypertensive disorders and infections.”

“Through this project, we can change the narrative so far as maternal and neonatal mortality is concerned. We need to drastically reduce the alarming numbers. These are not mere numbers but women, mothers, wives, sisters and loved ones. We hope that through this project we can transform the lives of our expectant mothers and improve their reproductive health and contribute to achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals’ target of 70 per 100,000 births worldwide”, she explained further.