Wa Municipal records 19 maternal mortality cases in two years

The Wa Municipal Health Director, Dr. Alex Bapula, is urging the public to take better care of pregnant women to prevent maternal mortality.

He mentioned that husbands, family members, health workers, and traditional leaders have collective responsibility of looking after expectant mothers.

“I think that we are failing the mothers…the entire society, not only the health system; But if you take what happen at home. What is the role of our chiefs? The queen mothers, assembly members even you the journalists. How can we sensitize the mothers? How can we educate the mothers?” he queried.

Speaking to Info Radio, Dr Alex Bapula explained that the municipality is losing pregnant mothers to preventable deaths.

He described the situation as a tragedy “because no woman should allowed to die just because that woman has become pregnant and want to put forth a baby. We should be able to protect that those mothers.”

“I think that we must do everything possible to stop this canker of mothers becoming pregnant and when they are up to term, they come to the facility, they die or sometimes mothers die in the community. It’s one of the serious challenges that myself, my team, the doctors and even the regional director we are confronted with,” he added.

He disclosed that the Wa Municipality recorded 19 maternal mortality cases between 2022 and 2023. In 2022, the municipality recorded 8 cases of maternal mortality against 11 in 2023.

According to Dr. Bapula, about 70 women died between 2015 and 2023 in the Wa Municipality and these are “Mothers who are not like they are sick. Their only challenge is that, we have become pregnant; these mothers were expecting their babies with joy, nothing happened and they just came to deliver and then they die.”

He identified that because Wa is a referral centre, sometimes they receive referrals from the various facilities in the region and sometimes from the Savannah Region. He explained that sometimes the facilities refer the patients to the municipal hospital or regional hospital very late.

“At the household level, I think that we don’t really take care of the mothers in terms of their diet. This is where I want the stakeholders, the husbands; when the woman becomes pregnant take care of the woman, make sure that the woman takes the right food,” he added.