The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has received funding from the United States to print 139,000 copies of the nation's one and only Maternal and Child Health Record Book.
It provided assistance through the Advancing Nutrition Ghana Project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), one of the flagship initiatives of the USA Government, to aid the nation in its fight against malnutrition.
With technical and financial assistance from JICA, the GHS created the integrated Maternal and Child Health Record Book (MCH RB) to enhance maternal healthcare and reduce maternal and neonatal mortality.
Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, Director-General of the GHS, said the country required at least one million of the books annually but had a delivery gap when he accepted the books in Accra last Friday.
He said that due to difficulties, the GHS was out of supply for around two to three years, but that, in addition to the 139,000 copies, there were presently a handful on hand.
"Mothers and children will not be charged for the combined Maternal and Child Record Book. It connects a mother's health information to those of her kid from pregnancy until the youngster is five, he added.
Empowerment
According to Dr. Kuma-Aboagye, the booklet's design was purposefully chosen to empower women, foster family support, encourage male engagement in maternity and child health care, and improve the efficiency of health workers' recordkeeping.
"The effort aims to enhance mother and child status, nursing practises, and nutrition behaviours through text-based and illustrative nutrition counselling in the book.
In addition to other crucial information, he said, it "provides adequate information on what to do during pregnancy, expectations at every trimester, and danger signs for reporting, child welfare and growth monitoring information from pregnancy through to five years after birth, among other critical information that will help reduce preventable maternal and neonatal deaths."
He thanked the US administration for their assistance.
Dr. Zohra Balsara, director of USAID's Health Office, expressed hope that maternal health care will surpass previous records.
In order to better document the continuum of care across maternal, newborn, and child health services, including antenatal care during pregnancy, delivery with the help of a skilled birth attendant, postnatal care, and child growth and development checks, we are distributing integrated record books today.
Collaboration
According to Selorme Kofi Azumah, a project representative for the USAID Advancing Nutrition Ghana project, the project worked with the health service to acquire the record books in response to a request for logistical and technical help to enhance data collecting, quality reporting, and utilisation.
The project, according to Mr. Azumah, has already helped the GHS teach 850 recently hired medical professionals on how to use the record books for counselling as well as for collecting, analysing, reporting, and using data to improve decision-making.