Statistics
from the Ministry of Health (MoH), Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and other
international organisations indicate that somewhere in Ghana, almost 60 women
die each week from causes related to pregnancy and birth, while 2,700 women die
each year from pregnancy or childbirth.
Another staggering data from World Health Organisation
(WHO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA) and World Bank hinted that the lifetime risk of maternal death in Ghana
is one in 68.
Amazingly, Ghana's maternal mortality ratio in 2010 was
350 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. This has decreased from 550 per
100,000 in 2000, and 440 per 100,000 in 2005, according to these international
organisations.
Globally, the UNFPA estimates that every day, almost 800
women die in pregnancy or childbirth. Every two minutes, the loss of a mother
shatters a family and threatens the well-being of surviving children.
Evidence shows that infants, whose mothers die, are more
likely to die before reaching their second birthday, than infants whose mothers
survive. And for every woman who dies, 20 or more experience serious
complications.
Of the hundreds of thousands of women who die during
pregnancy or childbirth each year, 90 per cent live in Africa and Asia.
The majority of women in Ghana and other parts of the
world are dying from severe bleeding, infections, eclampsia, obstructed labour,
and the consequences of unsafe abortions-all causes for which the UNFPA says
have highly effective interventions.
On the other hand, the picture of neo-natal deaths in
Ghana is worse than the maternal deaths one, as data churned out by both the
local and the international organisations revealed that in 2011, the West
African second largest economy recorded 23,000 newborn deaths. This meant that
three children died in an hour.
Neo-natal deaths account for 60% of infant deaths in
Ghana, while one in every 13 Ghanaian children dies before their fifth
birthday.
The
Chronicle Ghana