Elmina, Nov 11, GNA - The Central Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Aaron Offei, on Tuesday said maternal deaths in the region continued to run higher than the national average.

He said 100 women lost their lives in the region through childbirth in 2001 and 86 last year and that in terms of institutional maternal mortality ratio, the region recorded 3.8 per 1,000 live births compared to the national average of 2.06.

Dr Offei said this at the opening of a two-day ''scientific session on maternal mortality'' for 70 health personnel, including district directors of health services, drawn from various parts of the region. The session is geared towards providing the participants with the requisite information and experience on maternal mortality issues to enable them adopt a more positive approach to the issues of expectant mothers.

Dr Offei said although it is quite obvious that a lot of factors interplay to contribute to such high maternal deaths there is the need for the regional health directorate to identify those that it can influence and tackle them appropriately.

"From the maternal audit reports which are complied by the maternal mortality task force, considerable number of these deaths could be averted or prevented," he said.

In an opening address read for him, the Regional Minister, Mr Isaac Edumadze, also expressed concern that the region has been classified as being among four regions in the country with a high incidence of maternal mortality.

He said the basic underlying factors for this state of affairs are poverty and poor geographical access to quality and comprehensive obstetric services.

The minister called on health workers not to only regard the situation as a challenge but also as a duty to prevent avoidable deaths during child delivery.

Mr Edumadze, also called on all stakeholders such as political and opinion leaders and all citizens of the region to support health care delivery to improve the health of women.

Mr. Edumadze gave the assurance that the government will continue to provide logistic support to the health services to enable them to reduce maternal mortality to the barest minimum.

The WHO representative in Ghana, Dr Melville George, spoke about the high maternal mortality rate in sub-Saharan Africa with 1 out of every 16 women losing their lives as compared to 1 out of 2,000 women in the developed countries.

Dr George said a new initiative, dubbed "making pregnancy safer", and is geared towards ensuring that governments and partners make safe motherhood a strategy in national development agenda.

The President of the regional branch of the Private Midwives Association, Mrs Harriette Dadzie, attributed the high incidence of maternal deaths to poverty and ignorance.

She said some expectant mothers do not even have the means to enable them eat appropriately during pregnancy while some traditional births attendants also attribute complicated deliveries to spiritual causes and sent their clients off to prayer gardens.

Mrs Dadzie suggested to the health directorate to hold periodic training programmes to upgrade the delivery skills of both midwives and traditional birth attendants.