The ministry of health appeared before parliamentarian on Thursday requesting for the return of trained healthcare workers in the diaspora to help in the fight of maternal mortality rate.

The absence of Gambian health care professional has a negative impact on the health care manpower needs of the country.

Although childbirth death has significantly  reduced from 433 to 100,000 live birth in 2013 to the current state which is 169 per 100,000 live births according to Dr Samateh, however the recent fervent report of maternal death has sparked protest in the country.

Consequently, the minister of health was called on by parliamentarians to answer questions on recent maternal demeanors.

 

Dr Samateh argued that the absence of trained health professionals have had impact in the health sector of the country.

“Many Gambian health care professionals in the diaspora whose absence in the country even though many were trained here has a big impact on the health care manpower needs of our country. Hon. Members we equally appeal to you to get in touch with them because many of them are active supporting behind the scene, some of them rather more active with criticism but quite a number of them giving negative ones. But I think we should all appeal to them to come back and join our people to provide the services our people need because they are contributing to reducing maternal mortality rate in order peoples countries whiles are people suffer here. The salaries are poor but we decided to stay here to provide service for our people that they deserve.“

 

Scarce blood donors, late or irregular antenatal attendance, malnutrition and poor mobility among few are generally the root cause of maternal death in The Gambia.

Minister Samateh calls for concerted effort from the public to play a role in stopping maternal death.

“Awareness creation and sensitization, this is were we need the assistance of the public and all concern citizens here in the country and abroad. It is good to protest for lives lost, but more importantly to play a role in stopping the next maternal death by calling on women to register early for antenatal care or we donate blood to our nearest health facilities. It would have been good during the protest to have a blood donate drive as well. Of course, we are all aware of the recent protest and we see it in a good light in a sense that it has helped to create awareness. Many people probably didn’t know about the issues of maternal death and we are ready to work with them to forge ahead.”

In an effort to reduce childbirth death, a kabilo Bama initiative has been staged in a region in the country to mitigate the rate of maternal death.

“The ministry has initiated the Kabilo Bama initiative to empower women and educate them on reproductive and maternal health. This has been a success story that other country’s are emulating. We have done it in a region in The Gambia where it has yielded very positive results and we’ve gotten funding to expand it to the entire country. In the kabilo Bama initiative, women and their spouses work together during the  pregnancy period. The men accompanied their wives to the antenatal care, they remind them, they donate blood support them and look at the symptoms and signs that has been taught to all of them as a family and with that we started seeing decline in the maternal mortality rate in that region.”

The minister further echoed that his ministry has started constructing and renovating dilapidated health centers to mitigate childbirth death.

In the advent of the pandemic, The ministry of health has procured 10 ambulance which Dr Samateh said was intended before Covid to start maternal mortality reduction services. The initiative was to have ambulances station at strategic location in communities to facility easy mobility for pregnant women.

By: Sohna Tunkara