The Western North Regional Minister ,WILBERT PRETTY BRENTUM has called for urgent and coordinated action to reverse the region’s maternal mortality situation, warning that preventable delays in emergency care could continue to cost pregnant women their lives.
The Minister said the fight against maternal mortality could not be left to health professionals alone, stressing that traditional authorities, religious leaders, families, local government authorities, emergency transport services, private health facilities and communities must work together to make pregnancy and childbirth safer.
Speaking at the 2026 Mid-Year Performance Review Meeting of the Western North Regional Health Directorate, the Minister said the maternal mortality figures recorded in the first half of the year were a source of concern and required the region to move beyond routine discussions and reporting to practical interventions.
The meeting was held under the theme: “Ending Maternal Mortality Together: Making Free Primary Health Care Work for Every Mother.”
The Minister described the theme as timely and urgent, particularly highlighting the words “together” and “every mother” as a reminder that maternal mortality was a collective responsibility.
According to the Minister, the maternal death audit presented at the meeting showed that 16 maternal deaths were recorded during the first half of the year, with 73.3 per cent of the recorded deaths occurring within 24 hours of hospital admission.
He said the situation suggested that many of the women were reaching health facilities at a point where their conditions had already become extremely critical.
“What happens after we capture them?” the Minister asked, challenging health authorities to examine whether pregnant women identified through antenatal care were having their risks detected early and whether appropriate interventions were being initiated without delay.
He noted that 93.8 per cent of the women who died had attended antenatal care, indicating that the challenge could not simply be attributed to women failing to enter the healthcare system.
Rather, he said, the critical issue was whether the health system was effectively identifying risks during antenatal care and responding appropriately when complications developed.
The Minister disclosed that the audit identified delayed initiation of definitive management in 75 per cent of the cases, as well as weaknesses in referral and communication systems among facilities.
He cautioned against using the findings to blame individual health workers, saying the situation should instead compel stakeholders to examine the broader health system within which medical professionals operated.
Equity Concern
The Minister also expressed concern about the demographic characteristics of the women who died, saying the figures pointed to maternal mortality being not only a health issue but also one of equity and access.
He noted that 68.8 per cent of the women were aged between 20 and 29 years, while 61.3 per cent were rural residents and 68.8 per cent had primary or middle-level education.
He said the figures underscored the need for targeted interventions for women and communities facing geographical, educational and other barriers to timely healthcare.
“A woman should not die because a system designed to provide free primary health care failed to identify and escalate a life-threatening complication,” the Minister said.
He stressed that Free Primary Health Care should not merely remove financial barriers to healthcare but should also provide quality, timely, preventive, promotive and responsive services closer to the people.
According to him, every contact between a pregnant woman and the health system must be used as an opportunity to identify potential risks early, while emergency situations must trigger a coordinated response across the entire health system.
Call To Chiefs, Religious Leaders
The Minister called on traditional authorities, Queen Mothers, religious leaders and other community leaders to take an active role in the campaign against maternal deaths.
He said the first delay in seeking medical care often occurred within communities, where women and their families might hesitate to seek treatment because of distance, transportation challenges, cultural beliefs or the hope that a health condition would improve on its own.
He urged traditional and religious leaders to use churches, mosques, traditional gatherings, community durbars and local information platforms to educate women and families on the importance of early antenatal registration and recognising pregnancy danger signs.
He also called for stronger advocacy on birth preparedness, complication readiness, early decision-making, skilled birth attendance and timely referral.
Health Workers Challenged
The Minister commended health workers for their dedication, particularly those working under difficult conditions and sometimes with inadequate staffing, equipment and logistics.
However, he challenged them to strengthen the culture of urgency, accountability, teamwork and continuous learning in the delivery of maternal healthcare.
He stressed that every minute mattered when a woman arrived at a health facility with an obstetric emergency.
He called for improvements in clinical assessment and decision-making, emergency obstetric and newborn care, blood availability and the timely initiation of definitive treatment.
He further urged health facilities to ensure that referrals were properly communicated and accompanied by appropriate stabilisation and complete clinical information.
The Minister also called for stronger collaboration between public and private health facilities, stressing that maternal emergencies did not distinguish between public and private institutions.
He said effective communication, timely referrals and cooperation among facilities were therefore essential to saving lives.
Ambulance Service
The Minister also tasked the National Ambulance Service to strengthen its role in the maternal survival chain and emergency clinical response.
He said valuable time could not be lost because referral pathways were unclear, particularly when dealing with life-threatening obstetric emergencies.
He called for an efficient referral system that ensured women were moved quickly from facilities that could not provide the required level of care to those with the necessary capacity.
HEFRA Role
The Minister further called on the Health Facilities Regulatory Agency (HEFRA) to maintain quality assurance in maternal healthcare delivery.
He said regulation should ensure that facilities providing maternity services had the minimum infrastructure, equipment, human resources, emergency preparedness and referral arrangements required to protect mothers.
He also stressed the importance of involving private health facilities in the region’s maternal health strategy.
According to him, the private sector should not be viewed merely as a provider operating outside the public system but as an important partner in the regional maternal healthcare network.
Assemblies Must Act
The Minister also urged Municipal and District Assemblies in the region to make maternal and newborn survival a visible component of their local development plans.
He said maternal health was equally a development issue and required local-level interventions to address barriers that contributed to delays in accessing emergency care.
He called on the Assemblies to identify communities where emergency transportation remained a challenge and work with relevant stakeholders to develop practical local solutions.
He also urged them to support health facilities requiring assistance to improve emergency preparedness.
Three Priority Areas
The Minister identified three broad areas requiring urgent attention.
These are strengthening referral communication and stabilisation, ensuring the availability of critical resources including blood and emergency medicines, and reducing delays in the initiation of definitive emergency treatment.
He said the introduction of Free Primary Health Care presented the country with an opportunity to transform maternal healthcare but cautioned that free healthcare alone would not end maternal deaths if services remained delayed, fragmented or of poor quality.
“Free Primary Health Care must become the platform for early identification, early action, effective referral and continuity of care,” he said.
The Minister therefore urged participants at the review meeting to engage frankly, identify practical solutions and leave the meeting with clear commitments that could be implemented immediately.
He said the review should not become another exercise where maternal deaths were reduced to statistics in official reports.
Instead, he urged stakeholders to use the findings as a catalyst for meaningful transformation in the region’s maternal healthcare system.
“The women of Western North are depending on us, their families are depending on us, our communities are depending on us,” he said.
He commended the Western North Regional Health Directorate for confronting the evidence with openness and courage and urged all stakeholders to work together to make every pregnancy safer, every referral faster, every emergency response stronger and every mother count.
