Some 2,541 women died of maternal complications between 2021 and 2023 with Obstetric Hemorrhage (OH) and Gestational Hypertension being the leading causes.

Data from the Ghana Health Service (GHS) shows that in 2023, 860 women died from pregnancy-related causes with an institutional maternal mortality ratio of 109.35 per 1000 live births.

The Program Manager, Safe Motherhood Program of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Abraham Frimpong Baidoo said in an interview with the GNA that OH - any kind of excessive bleeding usually related to pregnancy - was the number one major cause of maternal deaths.

“Obstetric Hemorrhage could happen during pregnancy, childbirth, or in the postpartum period and bleeding typically occurs vaginally but rarely in the abdominal cavity,” he said.

Dr Baidoo said although gestational hypertension and diabetes were common pregnancy complications, hypertensive disorders during pregnancy was a second leading cause of maternal mortality in Ghana.

Gestational hypertension is blood pressure greater than or equal to 140 over 90 that begins during the latter half of pregnancy typically after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

The Obstetric Gynecologist said during pregnancy, high blood pressure could affect the body in different ways than it normally would and that could result in pre-eclampsia or severe pre-eclampsia during pregnancy.  

He said although maternal health was generally improving in Ghana, more work needed to be done to keep maternal deaths under control.

He said the delay in seeking, accessing and initiating care in the facilities was a challenge as most pregnant women visited hospitals late.

Dr Baidoo said in 2023, the GHS data captured 2,614 antenatal registrants with less than 50 per cent making eight antenatal visits.

“Presently, about 90 per cent of pregnant women in Ghana make four visits during antenatal, nine per cent of pregnant women do not attend antenatal at all until their third trimester while there are a lot of women who do not even visit the hospital at all during pregnancy,” he said.

He said the GHS data showed that about 60 per cent of pregnant women delivered at the hospital and that there were still quite a number of women who did not deliver in hospitals.

Dr Baidoo said the low maternal visits reduced the chances of pregnant women to receive outlined pregnancy care initiatives which affected maternal health delivery.

He lauded women who walked into hospitals to receive counselling and support when they intended to get pregnant, saying “we look forward to welcoming women for their antenatal visit in their first trimester that is during the first 12 weeks of their pregnancy when the fetus is vial.”

The Program Manager said GHS had strengthened its preventive and promotive maternal health care initiatives to reduce morbidities and mortalities.

It is also training health workers to better initiate maternal health care especially at the community level.

Maternal mortality refers to deaths due to complications from pregnancy or childbirth.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) three entreats countries to accelerate the decline of maternal mortality by 2030.

SDG three includes an ambitious target of “reducing the global maternal, mortality rates to less than 70 per 100 000 births, with no country having a maternal mortality rate of more than twice the global average”.

With six years to realising the goal, Ghana recorded institutional maternal mortality rate of 111.34, 101.67 and 109.53 per 1000 live births in 2021, 2022 and 2023 respectively.