The Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Elias Sory, on Thursday appealed to churches, mosques and other stakeholders to use their platforms to educate the public on safe motherhood.
He said education of mothers and community members on family planning, pregnancy and skilled attendance at delivery needed to be stepped up to help in the reduction of maternal mortality.
Dr Sory said people should invest in their family health instead of using their money on unnecessary phone calls and funeral cloth.
He said this in a speech read on his behalf at the Misoprostol Pilot Project stakeholders' meeting in Koforidua.
The meeting drew participants from the Upper Manya Krobo and Birim South districts and the participants included doctors, midwives,
gynaecologists and Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs).
The Misoprostol Pilot Project aimed to distribute Misoprostol, a drug, at antenatal care visits to prevent excessive bleeding after child birth and was funded by Venture Strategies Innovations.
Dr Sory said maternal mortality remained a major challenge to health systems worldwide adding "More than half a million women die every year as a result of pregnancy related causes in the world".
He said those deaths occurred in developing countries, especially in the sub-Saharan African countries.
Dr Sory said in 2000 as part of the Millennium Declaration, the world set a target of reducing maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters by 2015 from the 1990 figure.
He said while other continents were making great strides in that direction most sub- Saharan African countries were far behind from achieving
that Millennium Development Goal (MDG).
Dr Sory said with the 2007 reported maternal mortality ratio of 451 per 100,000 live births, the country was nowhere near achieving the MDG.
He noted that the figure translates to about 3,500 women dying in Ghana every year from pregnancy related causes, adding that, "The painful aspect of it all is that most of these deaths are preventable".
Dr Sory said most maternal deaths could be prevented by women accessing the appropriate use of reproductive health which includes family planning counselling and service to avoid unwanted pregnancies, focused antenatal care with prevention of maternal to child prevention of HIV and safe delivery assisted by trained health workers.
Dr Achiano Amponsa, Physician Epidemiologist from the Family Health Delivery of the Ghana Health service (GHS), in his presentation on the
Project said its main objective was to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of self-administered Misoprostol in preventing excessive bleeding after birth.
He said the project comprised of community mobilization and sensitization about safe delivery, prevention of excessive bleeding after
childbirth and maternal death.
He said the project would also train Traditional Birth Attendants on excessive bleeding after childbirth and Misoprostol.