Ignorance,
they say, is a disease, but for pregnant women it is even a killer especially
for those who are pregnant for the first time and expecting to deliver. Lack of
basic knowledge of maternal health is much grimmer for women in Northern Ghana,
an area where about 70 percent of the female population cannot even read, write
or speak English.
Take for instance, the story of Jemila, a 22-year old classroom
teacher in the Kumbungu District who is currently bearing her maiden pregnancy.
She told Savannahnews in an interview whiles attending her routine monthly
antenatal care at the Kings Village Medical Centre that, she has no idea of
what is expected of a pregnant woman from the early stages of the pregnancy to
the day of delivery.
Despite being a literate, she thinks there is the need
for constant education by nurses and midwives for her and especially for women
who are not privileged to go to school, to properly understand what they will
experience at every stage of their maturing pregnancies.
But for the intervention of Savana Signatures
(SavSign), a non-governmental organisation through its “Technology for Maternal Health
Project” which implementation began early last year, Jemila and other
women perhaps would have found themselves in a more hapless situation.
Elizabeth Jakalia, Project Officer, Technology for
Maternal Health, tells The Advocate that, the project which is aimed at reducing
maternal and infant mortality rates through the provision of relevant
information and advice to pregnant women is currently being implemented in six
hospitals in four districts.
The hospitals, she mentioned, include: The Kings
Village Medical Centre in the Kumbungu District, Savelugu Hospital in the
Savelugu-Nanton Municipality, Yendi Hospital in the Yendi Municipality as well
as the Central, West and Tamale Teaching Hospitals in the Tamale Metropolis in
the Northern Region.
An
estimated number between fifty and one hundred and twenty women die each year
in the Northern Region alone during delivery in hospitals. But, there are even
suspicions of a far greater unreported figure than these estimates particularly
among women who refuse to seek antenatal care or deliver in hospitals when they
are pregnant.
Each of
the beneficiary hospitals, according to Elizabeth, has been provided with six
computers, a printer and projector installed with educative resources on
maternal health to enable health officials to educate expectant mothers on
quality maternal healthcare which will hopefully lead to safe delivery.
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| Elizabeth Jakalia, Project Officer, SavSign |
“The
project design includes setting up maternal health corners, organizing
knowledge sharing sessions, and delivery of SMS/audio messages. Expectant
mothers in the remotest of locations have ready access to easy-to-understand
maternal healthcare information on their mobile phones much more frequently
than the monthly antenatal visits in hospitals” she added.
The over
1,700 pregnant women who have so far been registered under the project, she
explained, receive short voice/data messages on nutrition, personal hygiene,
signs and symptoms of pregnancy and what preparations they ought to make
towards safe delivery at the peak of their pregnancies. “Messages are delivered
in English, Dagbani and Likpakpa a number of times in a week”, Elizabeth
emphasised.
The STAR-Ghana two-year funded
project also has special features which include a flashing system, whereby
expectant mothers can flash a number in order to be registered on the system.
Midwives can also use phones to register expectant mothers onto the system.
Each week, each mother automatically receives a few calls in her own language
with information on the stage of her pregnancy, and suggestions to keep her and
her baby healthy.
The skills, knowledge and approaches
of at least 72 midwives, community nurses and ICT technicians of the six health
facilities have been enhanced to use ICT tools to communicate maternal health
information.
Jemila
lauded the initiative by SavSign: “I am pregnant for the first time and I’m
ignorant about a lot of things. My husband too, doesn’t know what a pregnant
woman is supposed to do. So receiving text/voice messages from SavSign has
helped me a lot; what to eat or drink, and which medicines to take to stop
certain conditions I may be experiencing”.
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| Pregnant woman receiving a call from SavSign |
“I’ll
like to recommend that they continue to send us the messages even after
delivery so that we will know what to do to take proper care of our babies” she
added.
At the
Tamale West Hospital where a monitoring team of SavSign paid a visit to assess
progress of the project so far, Fatahia who is five months pregnant lamented
that a lot of husbands do not care about what their pregnant wives go through.
While
lauding the project for the positive impacts so far made, she appealed to
SavSign to endeavour to send similar messages to their husbands so that they
could be proactive when their support is urgently needed.
Fatahia
said: “There are certain things according to health officials I need in my diet
as a pregnant woman in order to keep myself and the unborn child healthy. But
whenever I inform my husband about it he doesn’t show any concern….he thinks
I’m looking for an opportunity to spend his money”, she told this reporter
adding that “Some husbands will wait till the day you’re in labour before they
begin to buy you what you need for yourself and the baby. The nurses will be
shouting on you when you don’t have what every pregnant woman is supposed to
have and that is embarrassing”.
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