Accra, May 26, GNA - The Oxytocin Initiative Project, an intervention to reduce maternal mortality in Ghana, is now testing whether Community Health Officers who are frontline health workers can safely and effectively prevent Post Partum Haemorrhage (PPH).

According to Dr Sam Newton, Local Principal Investigator, who is leading the community-based trial in Ghana, said this would be done through the administration of oxytocin using the Uniject Injection System. The comparative phase of the Oxytocin Initiative Project trial is being carried out in the Kintampo North and South and Nkoranza North and South Districts of the Brong Ahafo Region.

Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Research Triangle Institute, and the Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC) are collaborating to implement this project with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In a statement to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, Dr Newton said: "The Oxytocin Initiative Project was timely, as it would provide information on the possibility of expanding oxytocin use to home births."

This, he said, would also further reduce PPH and maternal deaths; particularly in rural and remote areas were services were not available. Dr Seth Owusu-Agyei, who is also the Director of KHRC, noted that; "As women's health and survival improves, they would be more productive and contribute meaningfully to nation building, and they can take better care of their children and families."

The leading cause of maternal death in Ghana and worldwide is postpartum haemorrhage which refers to excessive bleeding during and after delivery. Fortunately, interventions exist to prevent and treat PPH; however, as 43 per cent of births still occur at home, many women do not have access to these lifesaving interventions.