Elmina, April 17, GNA - The Head of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department of the Central Regional Hospital, Dr. Seth Adu, on Monday called for closer working relationship between doctors and midwives to help reduce the rate of maternal and infant mortality in the country. He said between the two professionals "no one is the boss" in the labour ward and appealed to midwives not to feel intimidated when doctors come to the ward.

Dr. Adu who said this at the opening of a one week African Regional Conference on "Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights" at Elmina, urged them to work as a team to ensure safe delivery. It is the second in a series of international training programmes being organized by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) in collaboration with Lund University in Sweden, to give participants knowledge, experience and inspiration to initiate sustainable change in sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Participants from eight African countries including Ghana, Tanzania, the Gambia, Nigeria, and Kenya are attending. In an address read for him Dr. Henrietta Odoi Agyarko, the Deputy Director of Public Health of the Ghana Health Service, said the achievement of universal access to sexual and reproductive health and right depended on funding.

She also identified conflicts and lack of good governance as major barriers to achieving universal access to reproductive health. Professor Derker Lilgenstrand, an associate professor at Lund University, said poverty and under development were major contributing factors to maternal and infant mortality.