Dr. Edmund Ekow Kaitoo, the medical officer in charge of the East Akim Municipal Health Directorate, in the Eastern Region, has observed that some pregnant women in the area do not attend antenatal clinic because they are always busily engaged in illegal mining, popularly referred to as ‘galamsey’.
He explained that, the pregnant women preferred working at illegal mining sites to raise money to take care of themselves and their babies yet to be born, to visiting the clinics.
Dr. Kaitoo was speaking at the regional launch of the Child Health Promotion week, on the theme: “I am a new-born; keep me clean and help me live,” sponsored by Joy Industries and Divine Mother and Child Foundation, a non-governmental organization,” at Akim Adukrom in the municipality.
He said some of the women were impregnated by men working at the illegal mining sites, explaining that the men abandoned the women to their fate.
Dr. Kaitoo said, pregnant women working at the miens were exposed to childbirth complications such as premature delivery.
To address the problem, he said, health centers in the municipality had decided to institute an award package for pregnant women who attend antenatal care with their husbands.
The Eastern Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Charity Sarpong, in a speech read on her behalf, urged pregnant women to visit the hospital regularly for checkups during and after they give birth.
She said, it would help them to give birth to healthy babies, who would grow to become healthy and productive adults.
Dr. Sarpong urged married couples to practice family planning to be able to determine the number of children they want to have and at what intervals, and to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
She appealed to nurses, to consider their work as sacrificial, and work hard to save lives.
The president of the foundation, Edmund Duodo, who is also a nurse, asked mothers to feed their newly-born babies with breast milk within six months so that the babies could get all the essential vitamin need to fight.
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