The Upper East Region has recorded 27 maternal deaths as at the end of September 2020, an increment by 2 from the 2019 figure of 25.
Maternal death, according to the World Health Organization, WHO, “is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes.”
The Ghana Health Service, has attributed the disturbing development to the spread of COVID-19.
Speaking on behalf of the Regional Adolescent Focal Person at an engagement with religious leaders and other stakeholders, Mr Gilbert Agulu, a Senior Nursing Officer in Public Health, said the directorate is worried about the heightened maternal deaths, especially with regard to the Bolgatanga and Bawku Municipalities, which are referral points.
Whereas Bawku Municipal recorded 11 maternal deaths, Bolga Municipal recorded 7. The rest are Kassena Nankana Municipal which had 3, Bongo 2. Bawku West and Tempane Districts recorded one (1) death each.
The age distribution of the deaths is as follows. 15-19, one(1), 20-24, four(4), those between 25-29, 30-34, and 35-39 all recorded six(6) deaths with 45+ recording one(1) death.
Mr. Agulu said COVID-19 did not only increase maternal deaths but has also led to a sharp reduction in Out Patient Department attendance, low health educational and promotional activities, and the inability of the Ghana Health Service to organize school health services. This, he noted, could compound the country’s disease burden.
“COVID-19 has actually reduced OPD attendance in most of our health facilities because of the fear that if I go to a health facility with a cough, then I’m likely to be tagged as a COVID patient. So they the prefer to go to the pharmacy for drugs… So because of that the reporting of teenage pregnancy has gone down, and has lowered health educational and promotional activities. Schools training and deworming have also been affected.
So all these things lead to infectious diseases and pregnancy. There were also maternal mortalities as a result of the COVID. If you get pregnant, you don’t want to go to health facilities to deliver and the process of delivering in the house…you know the dangers involved. If you start bleeding there is nothing you can do about it, if the baby comes halfway out, legs out head inside, you can’t do anything about it. Actually, last year we had 25 deaths for the region and this year we already have 27 maternal deaths. We are looking at the high numbers in Bolga and Bawku because they’re the referral centers”.
It would be recalled that the Upper East Regional Hospital in April this year had to shut down the maternity unit for some days after a 34 year old pregnant woman, who has since given birth, tested positive for COVID-19 at the time while on admission.
Similarly, the Bawku Presbyterian Hospital and the War Memorial Hospital in Navrongo had a significant drop in hospital attendance due to the spread of the virus.
