By Florence Afriyie Mensah, GNA
Kumasi, July 25, GNA-Inadequate equipment and congestion at the Mother and Baby Units (MBUs) of most health facilities, are contributing to the high rates of death among newborn babies in the Ashanti region.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Ghana estimates that 70 babies die every day in Ghana.
The Ashanti Region is leading the chart, recording 52 deaths per 1,000 live births.
Dr. Rita Yeboah, Head of the mother and Baby Unit of the Kumasi South Hospital, who made these known, said there was the need for urgent action to provide health facilities with the needed equipment to care for newborn babies to help bring the figures down in the region.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi, she said the most vulnerable period of every child’s survival was the first 28 days.
She said all deaths recorded during that time were mostly attributed to pre-maturity, birth asphyxia and infections.
These situations, Dr. Yeboah pointed out, were being not properly managed in most health facilities due to the inadequate working apparatuses at the facilities, adding that, most times the facilities had to improvise to manage the situations of these neonates.
She said for instance that, the Kumasi South Hospital, which also served as the regional hospital for the Ashanti, had challenges with congestion and equipment.
“What is happening currently is that we have two or three babies sharing an incubator or sharing a radiant warmer (machines that keep newborns warm).
We also lacked a seep up machine, (a machine for expanding the lungs of newborns) and phototherapy machines (machines babies suffering from jaundice are put under).
In the whole of Ashanti Region, about nine (9) health facilities have the phototherapy machine, so other facilities must refer to us and when these referrals come in, babies must share such machines, a situation which does not ensure effective phototherapy.
Just imagine three babies sharing something which is meant for one,” she quizzed.
Dr. Yeboah said Ghana had stagnated in trying to bring newborn deaths down due to the inadequate equipment and support for baby care.
Touching on congestion at the facility, she said the Kumasi South Hospital admitted almost 1,000 newborns to the unit last year.
She argued that the space to accommodate these little ones had continually been a challenge, adding that this did not augur well for a regional hospital.
Dr. Yeboah appealed through the GNA to benevolent organizations and individuals to come to the aid of the facility to expand and equip the MBU.
This would help it to be able to offer quality health care and drastically reduce the death rates of newborns in Ashanti.
GNA
