Maternity Service Agenda (MSA)
GMH’s newest ground-breaking initiative is poised to strengthen maternal and newborn care in northern Ghana.
The Upper Regions of Ghana have witnessed an alarming increase in maternal and infant morbidity and mortality. In fact, a mom in northern Ghana is 8x less likely to survive childbirth than a mom in North America, and her baby is 5x more likely to die. This rise in poor outcomes stems from the fact that healthcare workers who face maternal and neonatal emergencies are limited by inadequate knowledge, skills, and competencies in Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care (EmONC).
In response to this issue, GMH’s newest ground-breaking initiative, the Maternity Service Agenda (MSA), is designed to strengthen maternal and newborn care in northern Ghana, ushering in a new era where every mother and child has access to the high-quality healthcare they deserve.
The primary goal of the MSA is to improve obstetrical and newborn emergency care in northern Ghana, as this gap significantly contributes to the tragedies we are witnessing.
As of International Women’s Day in 2024, the MSA has been delivering weekly virtual educational workshops on high priority obstetrical topics for physicians and midwives in northern Ghana. These are led by local obstetrician experts, who support the learning of attendees and establish themselves as mentors.
In May 2024, the MSA donated 3 fetal dopplers (fetal heart rate monitors) to each of the 19 hospitals in the Upper Regions. These valuable devices enable baby wellbeing to be monitored in pregnancy and during labour. With a doppler, fetal distress can be quickly identified and the appropriate lifesaving interventions can be initiated by care providers.
In May 2024, the MSA delivered a free 3-day training course on Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care for 1 physician and 2 midwives from each hospital in the Upper Regions. This created 48 MSA Ambassadors, who are capable of delivering this training course to other healthcare workers. MSA Ambassadors will repeat the training for perinatal nurses and midwives at their home facilities and support their ongoing obstetrical learning with simulation exercises and ensuring equal access to the weekly MSA webinars.
By adopting this training-the-trainers model, these lifesaving skills will be taught to hundreds of nurses and midwives across 19 hospitals, dramatically increasing the number of healthcare workers who are equipped to handle obstetric and newborn emergencies.
By connecting and establishing relationships between regional obstetricians, hospital physicians and community midwives, the MSA project will create new urgent maternity patient referral pathways. This will enable rural midwives to quickly call for help and expedite patient transfers to the nearest hospital for pregnant women in need.
To help us donate fetal dopplers to northern Ghanaian hospitals, we are thrilled to announce our Fetal Doppler Drive.
By providing these essential devices to Ghanaian maternity providers in rural areas, we aim to further reduce preventable complications and deaths during pregnancy and childbirth. These devices cost less than $30 and save lives.
We are calling for the donation of fetal dopplers to help provide the gift of neonatal care where it’s so critically needed. We invite you to be a part of this transformative journey by donating your own fetal doppler or contributing the equivalent to our cause (it only costs $30 per doppler!).
Pick-up, drop-off and mailing options (we’ll cover your mailing costs!) are all available, depending on location. Email us at msa@ghanamedicalhelp.com to learn more.
The Fetal Doppler Drive aims to equip Ghanaian maternity service providers with Fetal Dopplers, essential devices in the prevention of complications and death during pregnancy.
Subscribe to our mailing list to receive updates on GMH events and activities.
Phone: +1 (289) 684-4560
Email: info@ghanamedicalhelp.com
Mailing Address: 7414 County Rd 56, Utopia ON, L0M 1T0