Donate blood to prevent maternal deaths

Saturday, July 16, 2011 (The Mirror Pg 3)
By Rebecca Kwei
The Greater Accra Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in collaboration with the USAID Behaviour Change Support Project has embarked on a campaign to get more community blood donors to donate blood on periodic basis to stock the blood banks.
This is to among others prevent maternal deaths through profuse bleeding.
Acute blood loss in women during childbirth as a result of bleeding can lead to death since the blood volume is drastically reduced and oxygen supply to vital organs is severely compromised.
According to the service women bore the brunt of blood shortage at the blood banks because of bleeding during and after childbirth.
It said bleeding after birth was common in Ghana and that had accounted for so many deaths in health care facilities and the campaign was to create awareness on the problems of bleeding during pregnancy and childbirth as a major cause of maternal mortality and how to address it.
Maternal death is the death of any woman that occurs during pregnancy, labour and within six weeks after birth due to preventable factors. Maternal death remains the best indicator for the quality of women’s health care world-wide.
The Ghana Maternal Health Survey in 2007 indicated that maternal mortality ratio in Ghana was 451 deaths out of 100,000 babies born alive.
In 2008 at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital alone, out of the 10,312 pregnant women who reported, 69 of them died from problems related to child birth.
A total of 905 maternal deaths were recorded in health facilities throughout the country in 2009 and excessive bleeding was known to contribute about a quarter of all these deaths.
The directorate said there were many causes of bleeding but some life saving measures could be used to manage the situation and in the case of excessive bleeding, blood transfusion may be required.
On the role of the National Blood Transfusion Service in preventing maternal deaths, it said the service also created awareness on the need to donate blood voluntarily so that safe blood will always be available as of the time it was needed.
Unfortunately, the blood bank does not always have enough blood to be given to these women and the blood transfusion service is also appealing to all Ghanaians to cultivate the habit of donating blood voluntarily to stock the blood banks.
Males and females between the ages of 17 to 60 who weigh 50 kilograms and above can conveniently donate blood.
The service said blood donation was very simple and safe and could take about five to seven minutes after which the donor is made to rest for 10 minutes and then refreshed.