General News of Thursday, 16 October 1997

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POST-ABORTION HEALTH CARE

Registered Midwives are to be trained to provide Post-Abortion Care, including the treatment of incomplete abortions and providing Post-abortion family planning services. This move is aimed at reducing the high rate of maternal mortality caused by unsafe abortion. The Minister of Health, Dr.. Eunice Brookman-Amissah, said this at a workshop in Accra on the training of non-physicians in the management of complications resulting from abortions. She said the Ministry's medium term Health strategy has identified reproductive health services as the key priority interventions for the next five years. She said it is in this context that midwives should play an important role in providing post-abortion care at the decentralised levels of the Health care system. Dr.. Brookman Amissah stressed that it is important to reduce the need for abortion by meeting women's need for fertility control, especially of teenagers and young women. The Head of the Maternal and Child Health, Dr.. Henrietta Odoi-Agyarko, observed that midwives are vital in reducing maternal morbidity and mortality rates. End