Savelugu (N/R), July 12, GNA - Delays in accessing safe motherhood services, coupled with inaccessible roads and lack of transport to health centres have contributed to high maternal mortality in Ghana, Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, Northern Regional Minister has said. He said the government was taking a bold step to improve the road network as a priority in addressing the incidence of maternal deaths in the country.

Alhaji Idris was addressing the chiefs and people of Savelugu in the Savelugu/Nanton District at the national launch of this year's World Population Day on Wednesday at Savelugu. The celebration of World Population Day is to draw global attention to pressing population issues and to find ways and means of solving them to ensure healthier life care.

The National Population Council (NPC) organised the event with support from the United Nation's Population Fund (UNFPA). Its local theme was: "The Ghanaian experience @ 50 with male partnership in maternal health".

Alhaji Idris said timely and adequate support of men for maternal health and the well being of their partners was crucial in reducing maternal deaths. He said delay in taking decisions to seek healthcare, sometimes due to traditional believes, customs and taboos, as well as the over reliance on local treatment, was killing most pregnant women and must be stopped.

He said despite various government interventions to improve maternal health in the country maternal mortality ratio was still high. He said 214 deaths per 100,000 live births were always recorded in the country adding that the rate was as high as 900 deaths per 100,000 in parts of northern Ghana.

Alhaji Idris commended organisations that had developed programmes to strengthen the involvement of men in responsible parenthood, a measure he said would help reduce the maternal mortality in the country. Mrs Virginia Ofusu-Amaah, chairperson of the NPC expressed regret that many men look on ignorantly when their wives die from pregnancy and during child birth and stressed the importance of involving men in reproductive health programmes.

She said it was necessary to give men the requisite knowledge to understand the processes of maternal health and care to ensure that issues concerning maternal mortality were seriously tackled. She said the NPC was working to integrate maternal health issues into the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy to meet the Millennium Development Goal, which calls for the reduction of maternal mortality rate by a ratio of three-quarters between 1990 and the year 2015. Alhaji Abubakari Atori, Savelugu/Nanton District Chief Executive called on families to maintain smaller family sizes as an impetus for ensuring quality life particularly for children and women. He urged the male population in the Northern Region to soften their parochial gender-based positions and help to address maternal mortality to improve the standard of living in the region. 12 Jul. 07