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1st November, 2011
First Lady Urges Zero Maternal Mortality
The First Lady, Dr Mrs. Ernestina Naadu Mills, has called for zero tolerance of maternal mortality in the country’s health delivery system.
Consequently, she urged districts assemblies to commit more resources to programmes that would help stem maternal mortality in the districts to ensure that every birth is safe.
She made the call at a welcome ceremony of the symbolic identification of the seven billionth baby in Ghana on the theme “Ghana in a world of seven billion: The Implications”.
The baby boy, born at exactly 12:45am to Rev and Mrs. Adzoe at the 37 Military hospital, weighed about four kilogrammes.
The father, Rev. Redeemer Adzoe, head Pastor of the Redeeming Tabernacle Church, thanked God and the organisers for the honour done his family.
Mrs. Naadu-Mills said as the world population had reached the seven billionth, every effort should be made to dispense all energies and resources in reducing poverty and inequalities across the globe and also to help slow down population growth.
She asked countries to put in place affirmative action to empower women and girls, to accelerate development and capitalise on the huge numbers of young people to bring change in their livelihoods.
“Data from Ghana’s population censuses indicate that our population has grown almost four times from 6.7 million in 1960 to 24.2 million in 2010,” she said.
Mrs. Mills said the country had an annual growth rate of 2.4 percent and was expected to double by 2039 adding, “we must pause to consider what the situation would be regarding infrastructural development, food, sustainability and even traffic”.
She said Ghana compared to other countries in the sub-region, had done fairly well in reducing fertility from about seven children per woman to four but by the standard of a middle income country, that fertility rate of four was still high.
“As the seven billionth babies is born, concerted efforts should be about what the future of the child holds and others throughout the next couple of years and how the baby can become a national asset,” she said.
The First Lady said there was the need to make family planning a national priority so as to empower women to be able to decide when to give birth, how many and how frequently to have children and to be able to say, “I have to stop childbearing”.
The vice Chairman of the National Development Commission, Dr Edith Tetteh, said the Commission was constituting a board to design a long-term national development strategy for the nation to overcome the challenges and maximise the opportunities presented by the world of more than seven million persons.
“Through concerted efforts and increased support, we must address the gaps in our population and development programmes and renew efforts at transforming the demographic bonus that has been created as a result in the working age,” she noted.
The UNFPA Representative, Dr Bernard Coquelin, said whether we could live together on a healthy planet would depend on the choices and decisions we make as people.
“How can we ensure that the symbolic baby for the day and indeed all babies yet to come will inherit a world worth living in,” he added.
Consequently, she urged districts assemblies to commit more resources to programmes that would help stem maternal mortality in the districts to ensure that every birth is safe.
She made the call at a welcome ceremony of the symbolic identification of the seven billionth baby in Ghana on the theme “Ghana in a world of seven billion: The Implications”.
The baby boy, born at exactly 12:45am to Rev and Mrs. Adzoe at the 37 Military hospital, weighed about four kilogrammes.
The father, Rev. Redeemer Adzoe, head Pastor of the Redeeming Tabernacle Church, thanked God and the organisers for the honour done his family.
Mrs. Naadu-Mills said as the world population had reached the seven billionth, every effort should be made to dispense all energies and resources in reducing poverty and inequalities across the globe and also to help slow down population growth.
She asked countries to put in place affirmative action to empower women and girls, to accelerate development and capitalise on the huge numbers of young people to bring change in their livelihoods.
“Data from Ghana’s population censuses indicate that our population has grown almost four times from 6.7 million in 1960 to 24.2 million in 2010,” she said.
Mrs. Mills said the country had an annual growth rate of 2.4 percent and was expected to double by 2039 adding, “we must pause to consider what the situation would be regarding infrastructural development, food, sustainability and even traffic”.
She said Ghana compared to other countries in the sub-region, had done fairly well in reducing fertility from about seven children per woman to four but by the standard of a middle income country, that fertility rate of four was still high.
“As the seven billionth babies is born, concerted efforts should be about what the future of the child holds and others throughout the next couple of years and how the baby can become a national asset,” she said.
The First Lady said there was the need to make family planning a national priority so as to empower women to be able to decide when to give birth, how many and how frequently to have children and to be able to say, “I have to stop childbearing”.
The vice Chairman of the National Development Commission, Dr Edith Tetteh, said the Commission was constituting a board to design a long-term national development strategy for the nation to overcome the challenges and maximise the opportunities presented by the world of more than seven million persons.
“Through concerted efforts and increased support, we must address the gaps in our population and development programmes and renew efforts at transforming the demographic bonus that has been created as a result in the working age,” she noted.
The UNFPA Representative, Dr Bernard Coquelin, said whether we could live together on a healthy planet would depend on the choices and decisions we make as people.
“How can we ensure that the symbolic baby for the day and indeed all babies yet to come will inherit a world worth living in,” he added.
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