Be diligent in handling expectant women & newly born babies-NGO cautions health workers


A former member of the Council of State and CEO of an NGO, Friends of Pregnant Women (FPW) has underscored the importance for health workers be extra diligent in handling expectant and “new” mothers as well as their newly born babies. 

Nana Saa Gyamfuaa who is also the Queen of Anyima in the Kintampo South District of Brong-Ahafo expressed the sentiment when she presented items on behalf of her NGO to support the upkeep of a month’s old baby girl, Deborah Naa Angeley Anti whose mother died eleven days after delivery. 

The donation formed part of a gesture to commiserate with the Oko family of Sunyani Estate. 

The family lost their 34-year-old daughter and sister, Deborah Oko less than two weeks after she was delivered of a baby girl though a Caesarean-section. 

The package included two boxes of baby food, soaps, baby diapers and wipes and two buckets of detergent.  

According to GBC’s correspondent, Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo, the maternal death occurred just four days before the Bono-Ahafo Regional Director of Health, Dr. Kofi Issah announced at the 2017 Annual Health Performance Review Meeting in Sunyani themed “partnership for improved health delivery” that the Region recorded reduction in maternal deaths from 77 in 2016 to 70 in 2017.  

The Chief Executive Officer of FPW, Nana Saa Gyamfuaa was of the view that special attention and care for pregnant women, “new” mothers and their babies must be a watchword for all health personnel in order to prevent avoidable neonatal and maternal deaths. 

The former Council of State Member observed the focus of her NGO is help provide education, support and advocacy to improve maternal, neonatal and child health in Ghana with particular emphasis on deprived and underserved communities.  

Nana Saa Gyamfuaa intimated that creating awareness about maternal health issues and leveraging access to health facilities for women deprived in the communities will continue to be punch line activities of FPW in its agenda to prevent or reduce maternal, neonatal and infant mortalities. 

The CEO Friends of Pregnant Women stressed the need for the bereaved family to handle the loss with equanimity and take good care of “Little Debbie” for her to grow and serve society. 

Receiving the items, the mother of the late Deborah Oko and grand-mother of Little Deborah, Madam Beatrice Adotey thanked Nana Saa Gyamfuaa and her team for reaching out to them at “this critical time”, saying she had to abandon her business in order to take of the baby. 

Little Deborah Naa Angeley Anti’s mother, Deborah Oko,34, who was a nurse at New Abirem Hospital in the Eastern Region gave birth at the Regional Hospital in Sunyani on the 13th of February 2018, but passed on the February 24, 2018. 

During interaction, members of the Oko family were of the view that an extra diligence on the part of the medical officer who handled their daughter and sister (Deborah Oko), could have saved her. 

The Project Coordinator of Friends of Pregnant Women, Kwame Anin Frimpong told the Oko family of Sunyani Estate that representatives of the management team of the NGO will occasionally check on them to see how the baby is faring.  

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