Bongo district Focal Person for Mother Baby Friendly Health Facility Initiative (MBHI), Bantiu Cabral has called for concerted efforts by stakeholders in the health sector to improve facilities that will ensure infections in mothers and newborns are reduced significantly if not eliminated.
According to Mr. Bantiu, there are some facilities which are not limited to the Bongo district “where women go to deliver and there is no common bathroom for the woman to bath after delivery”
Speaking at a community durbar at Dua in the Bongo district, Mr Bantiu emphasized the need for community members to partner assemblies and other stakeholders to provide decent health facilities at the community levels.
“We all know that quality is expensive; there are some particular action plans which are drawn by facilities to execute in ensuring the quality of care at the facility levels for both mother and child. But you realized that some of these things will have to go with some little funding, and we all know that we are cash strap in most of the sectors with regards to government imbursement. So for now, I think it is only UNICEF that we are leaning on for some of these things to be carried out some of the activities at the various health centres”
The MBHI is a United Nation’s Children Fund (UNICEF)-Ghana supported program and implemented by Integrated Youth Needs and Welfare (INTYON), a Non-Governmental Organization and steered in 42 communities in the Bongo District.
The initiative also seeks to whip up the interest of mothers to exclusively breastfeed their babies especially the first 6 months of birth. Executive Director of INTYON, Chief Issah Ibrahim encouraged families to assist lactating mothers to practice exclusive breastfeeding.
“The old ladies, whom the lactating mothers were putting the blame on, saying that they [old ladies] normally give the children water, are saying that they are no longer going to do that. But who knows? We are thinking that much emphasis will be laid on them so that we will achieve our objective”
By: Joshua Asaah|A1radioonline.com|Ghana
