Audio By Carbonatix
According statistics from UNICEF, 40 out of 1,000 children in the three regions of the North die within the first month of life. This means thousands of babies do not get the chance to live for more than 28 days,
The organization and the Japanese government are working together to offer some support to tackle the situation.
Hawa Adam, who is 40 years old, recalls the hard time she went through to deliver 9 of her 10 children at home. Although she did not lose any of them, her children were always ill.
More than half of infant deaths occur in the first month, in northern Ghana. According to the Ghana demographic health survey, 57,000 children under age 5 die every year.
Most of these deaths are not reported in northern Ghana; the major causes of these deaths are infections.
UNICEF with support from the Japan government has started a newborn care project in northern Ghana to help reduce the deaths.
Paul Baani is a community health nurse who benefited from the training by UNICEF. Paul attends to about 5,000 people in 5 communities in the Bawku West district of the Upper East region. He provides antenatal and postnatal care for mothers and babies in the 5 communities.
“Since we started the new born care project, the number of child deaths has reduced significantly in this area.”
Some mothers admitted they have seen a significant improvement in the health of their babies.
In 2012, the newborn care initiative was introduced to 11 districts, with a total population of 1.4 million people.
It is expected that with further expansion, newborn deaths will be reduced over a period of 3 to 5 years.
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