The Ghana Health Service has recorded 91 maternal deaths in the northern sector of the country in 2023, out of which the Northern Region alone leads by 64 of the women who died during childbirth. Madam Theodora Asutane, Public Health Nurse at Northern Regional Health Directorate, attributed the maternal deaths partly to the absence of oxygen for emergency cases in most hospitals in the region. The primary cause of the deaths was delay in referring asthma, sickle cell disease, haemorrhage and unsafe abortion cases to bigger hospitals such as the regional and teaching hospitals, she said. Madam Asutane said this during the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) monitoring visit of activities in the Northern Region, especially on maternal health care programmes, in partnership with the Ghana Government. The programme was to collaborate with stakeholders to champion reproductive health and reproductive rights issues to improve maternal health care in the region. She said the maternal health care delivery pr ogramme on capacity building training had enhanced the health practitioners' skills in quality maternal care delivery. As part of the programme, there was also community engagement to strengthen relationships and collaboration between health workers and community members. Such performance, she indicated, needed much attention to reverse the trend and save more mothers during childbirth. Madam Fati Mahama, a midwife at the Northern Regional Hospital, appealed to other institutions to support the government in providing resources to both regional and district hospitals to improve maternal healthcare delivery and save mothers and their babies. Madam Lydia Namsoh and Madam Mavis Boom, both midwives and beneficiaries of the maternal health care capacity building training programme, said the training had improved their knowledge and skills to deliver better services to pregnant women. Mr Jude Domosie, Programme Analyst at UNFPA, said the Fund's Maternal Health Programme supported critical interventions in the northern region with high maternal mortality and morbidity. That was to strengthen health systems and ensure that women and adolescent girls had quality maternal health services when they needed them, he said. Mr Domosie said due to the programme, more midwives had now improved their skills with more opportunities to prevent obstetric fistula. Mrs Adjoa Yenyi, Programme Specialist in Adolescent and Youth Development at UNFPA, said the UNFPA programmes were aimed at achieving universal access to sexual and reproductive health, promoting reproductive rights, and reducing maternal mortality. The Monitoring team also paid a courtesy call on Alhaji Shani Alhassan Saibu, Northern Regional Minister, where the Minister pledged the government's commitment to supporting the UNFPA programmes in the region to improve quality health care delivery. Source: Ghana News Agency