Two non-governmental organisations have joined forces to help the Adaklu District in the Volta Region attain universal health coverage and improve maternal health.

Give Right Foundation, based in the United States of America, and Friends of Adaklu, based in Ghana have begun a pilot project to provide ultrasound scan services in the deprived district.

The district is populated with mostly rural dwellers who survive on small-holder farming, animal rearing, and hunting. The over 40,289 residents rely on 18 health facilities in the district.

With a birth rate of 39.7%, only one of the facilities provides ultrasound services, making it difficult for pregnant women to access complete antenatal care services.

However, the collaboration would see the provision of a Butterfly Handheld Ultrasound device to help ease the burden of most pregnant women traveling outside the district to access ultrasound scan services.

The device is a new technology that makes it easier to provide ultrasound scan services for pregnant women to get them abreast with the progress of their unborn babies. It is used with a tablet, which serves as a display screen for the ultrasound images.

Provision of the service is expected to help the Adaklu District which is one of the deprived agrarian districts in the Volta Region of Ghana achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4.

Midwives and Nurses at the Evangelical Presbyterian Mini Health Centre in Adaklu Waya were trained on the use of the ultrasound machine being provided by the Give Right Foundation.

They were trained in the areas of number of gestations, fetal viability, placentation (previa), estimation of delivery date, and recognition of fetal structures such as gender and orientation.

A Co-Founder of Give Right Foundation and President of the Ultrasound Student Association at University of California, Frederik Heath explained that the pilot project was in response to the most important need of the district, as posited by the residents.

He said that the Butterfly Handheld Ultrasound device would ultimately change the healthcare delivery narrative of the district as it would guide women during their pregnancy journeys, and help give them the best of care.

“The benefit of the project is that for the first time, these thousands of women can receive complete prenatal care and know when their baby is coming, know if the baby is a boy or girl, know if the baby is still alive”, said Mr. Heath who is also a final year MD/MBA student at the Irvine School of Medicine, a researcher, and a teacher.

He further indicated that “Most importantly for health outcomes, we have also trained the midwives to be able to detect the placenta previa which is a life-threatening condition for both the mother and the baby”.

Mr. Heath added that if the conditions are identified early, the mother and the baby would be saved through a cesarean section, within the earliest possible time.

A Co-Founder of the Give Right Foundation, Jean-Paul Sewavi, shared how passionate he was about the project, which seeks to make childbirth a lot easier and more convenient for the locals in rural areas.

He added that the project was of “personal significance” to him as he lost his mother due to pregnancy complications at a very young age in his home community in Togo.

“This ultrasound project of the Give Right Foundation has a very personal significance for me because my mother passed away when I was 3 years old. She gave birth to my brother and passed away and my brother also passed away after two hours.

I don’t know my mother. When I was growing up, I decided to inquire what happened to her and no one seems to know what actually killed her. But now I am realizing that if we had had a device like this available and accessible for the rural community, it may have saved my mother’s life”, he said.

It was all joy when some pregnant women who had the opportunity to receive scan services during the training saw the images of their children, their sex, and their date of delivery for the first time.

To enhance service delivery, a gynecologist at Fountain Medical Services, Dr Wilson Agbavor will help with the interpretation of every scan taken with the Butterfly handheld ultrasound device.

A Consultant Sonographer and Assistant Lecturer at the University of Health and Allied Sciences, UHAS, Swallah Alhaji Suraka will also work with the health workers at EP Mimi Health Center to build their capacity.

The Country Director of Friends of Adaklu Madam Stella Kudah, assured all stakeholders that, her outfit will continue to partner with Give Right Foundation to expand Ultrasound services within the health facilities in Adaklu District and beyond.

The team also educated some community members on the introduction of Butterfly handheld ultrasound device services and the need for pregnant women to access antenatal care.

The Butterfly handheld ultrasound device comes as a game changer, with residents hoping it could be extended to other health facilities in the Adaklu District.