Hajia Alima Mahama, a lawyer and development consultant, has called for clean, affordable and safe maternities in all public health facilities to enable the Ghanaian woman to realise her right to dignified delivery.

According to her, the government could not ignore the fact that it was perpetuating the violation of the Ghanaian woman’s right to safe reproductive health.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, she complained that maternity facilities were over concentrated in the Accra, Tema, and Kumasi areas, exposing most parts of the country to the painful reality of unsafe deliveries and their delicate consequences of child deformities, infections, high maternal and child mortalities.

She, therefore, asked the government to consider circumstances of birth as the most crucial aspect of a human being’s life because most deaths and deformities among children and women could be prevented by well intentioned policies, which recognised antenatal and maternity services as crucial aspects of the health delivery.

“The human being, who is the human resource of the country, is the most important element in national development, therefore, let us make his or her entry into the world less cumbersome,” Hajia Mahama said.

She called for more aggressive and innovative dissemination of information on sexual and reproductive health to reduce the prevalence and incidence of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and unwanted pregnancies, which she said, were ruining the lives of many young females.

Hajia Mahama called on all faith-based organisations, schools, traditional authorities and opinion leaders to join in the crusade for education, healthy living and safe sex or abstinence to fortify the next generation against the scourge of diseases, low self esteem, and ignorance.