Take good care of pregnancies

ABOUT 11 per cent of premature foetal deaths in Ghanaian are the result of the inability of parents to take good care of pregnancy, a former Director-General of Ghana Health Service, Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, has said
Delivering the second public health lecture series of the Donewell Life Company Limited (DLCL) in Accra last Friday, Prof. Akosa said premature death did not start during adult life but it began from the womb when the baby was still unborn.
The lecture had the theme, "Why Ghanaians Die Prematurely," and was aimed at encouraging Ghanaians to practise healthy lifestyle.
Prof. Akosa is an advocate of healthy living. He has spoken extensively on the need to ban smoking in public places and the unbridled advertisement of cigarettes.
Prof. Akosa said the premature death of Ghanaians did not start when they were already adults.
"We have to start from the very basic level by taking care of the baby who is yet to be born."
To enhance the health of children, Prof. Akosa urged husbands to ensure that their wives were in perfect health before conception, in order for them to have safer pregnancy and delivery.
That, he explained, was important because a healthy mother was the first step towards achieving a healthy baby who would grow into a healthy adult, thereby ensuring a healthy nation.
With the current level of poverty in the country and the inability of families to have three square meals a day, Prof. Akosa suggested the use of beans as a dietary supplement for individuals.
He said though the life expectancy rate had increased from 40 since independence, to about 68, a lot still remained to be done in order to achieve health society toward national development.
Prof. Akosa said most Ghanaians die prematurely partly because of the country’s poor health system. "There are no ambulances in strategic locations to convey sick persons from their homes to hospitals; bad road networks result in foetal and preventable accidents on our roads and the care-free attitude of certain persons are all factors."
He also cautioned Ghanaians against the high-level consumption of alcohol and carbohydrates without corresponding exercise to burn it.
In an interview, the Managing Director of DLCL, Mr Samuel Oduro, said that the health of every individual was directly related to the development of the nation.
Mr Oduro said the public health lecture series formed part of the company‘s social responsibility and a way of addressing some of the health challenges Ghanaians were facing.
"Health, as we know, is life." That, he said, fit into the policy of the company to lead the crusade in creating the necessary public awareness in the country.