The Ghana National Association of Registered Midwives (NARM-GH), is advocating for the government to furnish all the maternity wards at the various health care facilities in the country.

National President of the Association, Mary Ofosu, said providing the necessary logistics to work with will complement their sacrifice, hence encouraging midwives to go the extra mile to provide comprehensive maternal care for mothers.

She spoke to JoyNews at the Bono Regional branch of the Association's Continuous Professional Development training and regional delegates conference to elect regional officers in Sunyani, Tuesday 13th July 2021.

The training is aimed at helping to curb the rate of neonatal morbidity/mortality resulting from neonatal jaundice in the region.

She said from the CHPS zone, clinics, health centres, polyclinics, districts and regional hospitals, and the teaching hospitals should be stocked with modern facilities to aid their work.

In addition, the NARM-GH President noted that their work affects mothers, children, husbands, and the entire community, and since it entails a lot of body fluids, gloves, bleaches, detergents, etc. should never be in short supply. This will ensure the safety of both the midwives and mother and child.

"When you go to work, you either come out as a blessed person or as a cursed person. Depending on how you relate to your clients, they will invoke God's blessing on you", Mary Ofosu said, hence encouraging midwives not to relent on discharging their duties with distinction.

The election to select executives to run the affairs of NARM-GH Bono Region for the next four years saw all 7 aspirants, each vying for the available 7 positions, going unopposed.

They are; Hannah Nyame Ocran, chairperson, Portia Frimpongmaa, deputy chairperson, Kofi Badu, secretary, and Ellen Nimako, deputy secretary. The rest are Sarah Obeng Agyei, treasure, Gifty Akumpage, Public Relations Officer, and Gloria Owusu, Industrial Relations Officer.

The NARM-GH Bono Regional chairperson, Hannah Nyame Ocran, said her target is to improve the bad nuts amongst them because the treatment some midwives offer to some pregnant women is not the best.

She said irrespective of the location, a well-equipped midwife should be able to demonstrate professionalism.

"Either we turn them into good nuts or let the good midwives influence them so that when anybody is talking about midwifery, it would be full of praises", she said, hence the continuous training of midwives to give quality customer care.

She said negative customer care often overshadows the many positives offered, and they are working to reverse the narration which will also help reduce neonatal morbidity/mortality.

The Chairperson of the Bono registered midwives, however, assured they will also continue to educate mothers from preconception, conception, and delivery.

"Every woman on a labour bed knows about labour pains. When education starts early, they comport themselves and often give their consent to the midwives on delivery issues. It is important for midwives rendering services to win the love of women in labour, just like a man works to win the love of a woman so that at the end she goes home happy while the midwives also sleep soundly", she explained.

Some midwives were rewarded in cash and kind for their enormous contribution to the association and midwifery in the region.