Accra: The lack of baby diapers is discouraging some mothers from attending postnatal care (PNC) sessions in rural communities, despite efforts by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and its partners to promote PNC attendance to reduce infant mortality.
According to Ghana News Agency, lactating mothers in such rural communities are unable to afford diapers and are forced to use improvised rags. Madam Janet Lipaar, a mother and resident of Meteu in the Wa West District, revealed this during a ‘Maternal and Child Health’ sensitisation organised by the Innovations for Sustainable Rural Development (ISRuDev) in the community. She indicated that the situation also discouraged lactating mothers from attending meetings at the community level and beyond for fear of embarrassment.
Madam Lipaar explained, “As newborns, they have to wear diapers when going for weighing (postnatal care). Some of us use rags because we cannot afford diapers, but they cannot hold urine or faeces. So, when your baby urinates or defecates, it soils you or the person holding the baby. That becomes shameful and embarrassing, that’s why some mothers stop going even though we know its importance.”
She lamented that most rural women had no reliable source of income to purchase diapers, and many received little support from their husbands after delivery. She therefore appealed to benevolent individuals and organisations to assist women who could not afford baby diapers.
Madam Hyacinthia Dakorah, a Staff Midwife at the Meteu Health Centre, expressed worry about poor ANC attendance in the community, especially in the first trimester. She appealed to men to support their wives during pregnancy and after childbirth to ensure both maternal and child health were safeguarded.
Mr Elvis Dare Pelko, a Senior Community Health Nurse at the Meteu Health Centre, emphasised the importance of ANC attendance within the first trimester for both foetal and maternal health. He said that period determined the health and condition of the baby and the mother, hence women should take ANC visit within that period seriously.
The sensitisation formed part of the ISRuDev’s programmes to enhance maternal and child health, and promote women’s economic empowerment in rural communities. Similar sensitisation activities had been carried out in the Chogsia community in the Wa West District.
Mr Maxwell Kpetaah, the Business Development Officer at ISRuDev, noted that ISRuDev would monitor ANC and PNC attendance in the two communities and reward women who attend consistently, especially those who attend with their husbands. He added that ISRuDev would collaborate with partners such as MTN Ghana to deliver maternal and child health information through voice messages, and establish community nutrition schools to support the nutrition of children under five years.
The sensitisation contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly, target 3.1 which sought to ‘reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births’, by 2030. Also target 3.2 required that, ‘By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under five years of age, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births and under-five mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births.’