Cabinet alarmed over maternal deaths – Health Minister tells Midwives’ Conference

Dec 01, 2012 News

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The issue of maternal and infant mortality has been gaining the attention of Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon. At least this is according to Minister of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, who said, yesterday, that the matter has even been up for intense discussion at the level of Cabinet.

He said, “We are somewhat alarmed at the level of Cabinet about the maternal mortality deaths…We have been agitated by this since around November 2010 when there were two consecutive media reports of maternal deaths….”
The Minister who was at the time addressing the 2012 Midwives Association conference at the Regency Suites/Hotel, Hadfield Street, Georgetown, yesterday was at pains to highlight that “…Cabinet and I am displeased that since June of this year I have not received a single report concerning even those high profile maternal deaths.”
At the moment there are laws, according to the Minister, which require that certain officers do certain things when there is a maternal death. However, even outside of this mandate, he stressed that there should have been moves by midwives to “want to know what the analyses of such cases are…”
“How could you speak of changing and tweaking legislations when you do not know of the basic legislations that have existed for many years?” asked the Minister as he adopted a defensive stance which saw him lashing out at the inaction of the Association to complete a refined draft of legislations which speaks to the issues of maternal mortality as well as that of under five mortality.
The Minister said, yesterday, to the gathering of midwives, that he is now under pressure to put punitive measures in place because of the failure on the part of health officials to provide him with needful reports.
“I have been writing around to find out where are the reports because it is looking like I am soft and I don’t like that,” warned the evidently incensed Minister.
He added that the unfortunate instances of maternal deaths are in fact prevalent at tertiary institutions rather than in hinterland locations. “I don’t remember when last I lost a woman in the bush (hinterland).”
Against this background the Minister said that efforts should have long been made to adopt a problem-based learning approach rather than ignoring the existing problems. He further alluded to instances where the ideal mode of operation was not utilised leaving much to be desired in the health sector.
Turning his attention to the Association members in attendance yesterday, the Minister posited that “your leadership should be thirsty to review these cases at Continuous Medical Education (CME) sessions.”
Minister Ramsaran in his tactical presentation contended, “There are lots of tidying-up that needs to be done but still for a protracted period I have been advising your leadership to get to you copies of legislations….I have spoken of this with your leadership cadre not once but several times to get it done…that is basic, is it not?” he questioned the gathering.
It is the Minister’s belief that members of the Association should seek to be armed with relevant legislations, adding that in some cases where there are contentious issues in Parliament such as those dealing with abortion and teenage pregnancy, midwives should in fact flock to the galleries of the decision making House.
This practice, he claims, is currently non-existent. “We need to be good citizens; we need to know our legislations and have continuous working groups as it relates to legislative reform,” urged the Minister.
The midwives’ conference which was held under the theme “Improving Women’s Health in Guyana” saw representation from a number of organisations including the International Confederation of Midwives in the person of Ms. Frances Ganges; the United Nation Population Fund in the person of Mr. Derven Patrick.

Also in attendance were Acting Director of the Ministry of Health’s Health Sciences Education Division, Mr. Wilton Benn and Director of Maternal and Child Health, Dr. Janice Woolford.
The Midwives Association of Guyana was formed out of the need for midwives to take responsibility for the development of the profession and the provision of quality midwifery services.
On May 6, 2009, the body was officially launched and since then midwives have organised and conducted continuing education sessions and held yearly conferences which also provides an environment for fostering unity and networking.
With a membership of 85, it was just recently accepted as a member of the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) which supports, advises and strengthens associations of midwives across the world. ICM is an accredited non-governmental organisation and works closely with the World Health Organisation, the United Nation’s Children Fund, UNFPA and other organisations worldwide to achieve common goals in the care of mothers and children.

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