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Maternal mortality is a women’s empowerment emergency
A woman who dies in childbirth does not only lose her life. She loses every plan she was still building. It could be plans to grow her business, achieve higher education or create a brighter future for her children.
Maternal mortality is a direct blow to women’s empowerment because empowerment and potential mean little if a woman cannot survive the act of giving life.
The baby survives. Sometimes the baby does not. Either way, a family is left asking the same unbearable question: why should a woman go to a health facility to give life and never return home?
Recent national data presented by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) revealed that 955 maternal deaths were recorded in 2025, up from 779 in 2016.
The figures were disclosed by the Director of the GHS Family Health Division, Dr Kennedy Brightson, at a February 2026 workshop on pre-eclampsia and maternal anaemia, where he noted that hypertensive disorders remain a leading cause.
Separate concerns raised at a national dialogue in late 2025 had already painted a disturbing picture of the maternal health crisis. The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Dr Agnes Naa Momo Lartey, and Deputy Chief of Staff, Oye Bampoe Addo during the dialogue called for urgent and coordinated national action to address the problem.
Successive governments have introduced measures to protect mothers and reduce preventable deaths, but the numbers tell us that far more must be done.
The time for incremental action is over. Ghana must act with greater urgency, stronger commitment and sustained investment to ensure that no woman pays with her life for the privilege of bringing another life into the world.
Maternal death must be treated with the urgency of a national emergency because that is exactly what it is!
This deadly menace is not only a health problem, but a gender equality and development crisis.
A woman’s life should not be the price of motherhood
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has repeatedly stressed that most maternal deaths are preventable. Major causes, according to the WHO include severe bleeding, infections, high blood pressure disorders, complications during delivery and unsafe abortion. Prevention requires more than telling women to attend hospital. Care must be available, affordable, timely and good, backed by skilled personnel, working emergency services, reliable supplies and faster ambulances.
Antenatal care is not optional
Women must be empowered with information. Pregnancy is not a condition to be managed with rumours or myths. Regular antenatal care matters because dangerous complications, especially pre-eclampsia, can be detected early through warning signs such as severe headaches, visual disturbances and swelling of the hands and face.
In some communities, swollen feet are dismissed as normal or explained through myths, including the belief that it signals a woman is carrying a boy. Such beliefs delay care, and a pregnant woman should never gamble with her life because a symptom has been explained away by tradition.
A caesarean section is not a curse
One of the most dangerous misconceptions in childbirth, among some rural women especially, is the belief that a caesarean section represents failure, weakness or a spiritual problem. It does not. It is a medical procedure that can save the life of a mother, her baby or both, and no woman should reject one out of fear of ridicule or religious condemnation. The goal of childbirth is for mother and baby to survive, not to prove a woman can endure labour.
Religious leaders carry real responsibility here. Faith should support medical care, not stand in opposition to it. A woman who undergoes a medically necessary caesarean has not failed, she has been helped to protect her life and her child’s.
Referral should not become a death sentence in people’s minds
There is troubling fear surrounding referral to major hospitals. Some families hear stories of people dying after referral and conclude that referral itself signals impending death, which creates dangerous delay. Referral is often necessary precisely because a woman needs specialised care. This does not excuse the health system from scrutiny, but fear and misinformation must not stop women from reaching the care they urgently need.
Maternal mortality is not a problem affecting only poor, rural or uneducated women. Poverty raises risk, but educated and financially stable women also face severe complications. Every woman deserves quality maternal healthcare.
Ghana must move from mourning to more action
According to the WHO, more than 700 women globally died every day in 2023 from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, with sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia accounting for the overwhelming majority. Ghana should not treat each maternal death as unfortunate but inevitable. Every death must raise questions: was the woman monitored, did she seek care early, was referral timely, did the facility have adequate staff, blood and medicine? The answers must lead to action.
A society cannot claim to empower women while accepting preventable deaths in pregnancy and childbirth as “normal.” The health system must be strengthened and communities educated, so that families stop pressuring women to reject medical intervention.
Every maternal death is a devastating failure that demands immediate action, accountability and results!
A call to Africa’s leaders
Leadership is measured by whose lives are protected, not just whose economies grow. Every maternal death recorded on a ministry’s desk represents a woman who trusted her country with her life and was let down. Budgets must reach the last clinic, not just the capital. Policies mean nothing if a rural mother still bleeds to death waiting for an ambulance that never comes. Africa cannot rise while burying the women who carry its future. Let this be the generation of leaders who choose accountability and decisive action over anything else!
By Raissa Sambou
The writer is a children’s rights advocate and the founder of The Raissa Child Protection Initiative.
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I saw a video of two young men mistreating a guy in school uniform. The manner in which a man in a white shirt was stamping on the head of the student on the ground and kicking him, was heart wrenching. It was like a scene from an action movie.
Comments in the video made me to understand that the two people engaged in the dastardly attack on the chap on the ground were teachers. How teachers who had been trained by teacher training institutions could do what they did, defies logic; simply mind boggling.
This brings the issue of screening of would-be teachers to mind. Is there a psychological vetting system in place to identify unsuitable characters like those two teachers so that they are barred from being teachers or are helped to have the right mindset as teachers? We cannot continue to let the status quo remain and expect a different result.
Digitalisation of the economy has brought in its wake a whole lot of ways that seeks to address pertinent socio-economic issues. One of them is the introduction of the TraffiTech-GH system of regulating traffic flow without human intervention.
This clearly is an innovative way of enforcing compliance which obviously would ensure discipline and therefore safety on our roads. The drivers are raising some issues which are legitimate and must be addressed as soon as possible or should I rather say immediately.
If a Bus Stop is occupied by traders and therefore the drivers cannot stop for passengers to alight or board, they would have no option than to park in the road, blocking traffic flow, which would be an offence that TraffiTech-GH would capture as a violation and punish accordingly, by imposing a fine.
A very sad incident occurred last week resulting in the senseless murder of an uncle and her niece in the Greater Accra Region. The story making the rounds on social media was that, the uncle took a loan from the suspected murderer but failed to honour his obligation to pay back the money.
The suspect accompanied by a lady, went to the residence in the Sakumono area and a heated argument ensued, resulting in the suspect shooting the Uncle and her niece in the process. The first question that came to mind was that “Why did they not allow patience to carry the day?” If it is true that the uncle indeed owed the man, he ought to have maintained a certain demeanor that portrayed a willingness to pay the money and not to enrage the suspect in any way.
Again, if someone owes you, you do not take the law into your hands by going to confront him with a loaded gun in your pocket. The proliferation of small arms must be given serious attention.
The leaders in the educational sector need to sit up to address the misbehaviour of both students and teachers, especially the teachers who have been sexually harassing students. The fallout, in the recent Obuasi Senior High School (SHS) issue, has been an official statement directing teachers not to ask students to work in their bungalows.
This code has been in the books of the Ghana Education Service (GES) all this while. It is nothing new and so like everything else in this country, the issue is not the lack of laws but the enforcement. What I find surprising is that after breaking this code of ethics, the GES has not sacked the notorious Headmaster who evidence has been established beyond reasonable doubt that he had grossly flouted this regulation, repeatedly. This is a gross failure on the part of leadership, from the ministry level down to the school level. This must not be allowed to repeat itself. God bless.
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Implant-based reconstruction recovery
Implant reconstruction is generally less invasive during the initial phase, allowing for a quicker return to baseline daily activities.
Initial healing window: Most patients resume light, non-strenuous daily tasks within 2 to 4 weeks.
Activity Restrictions: Heavy lifting, intense upper-body exercises, and high-impact movements are typically restricted for four to six weeks to allow the chest tissues to secure the implant or expander.
The expansion phase: If a temporary tissue expander is used, recovery includes periodic office visits over several months where the surgeon gradually adds sterile fluid to stretch the skin.
Physical therapy focus: Gentle arm and shoulder stretches begin early to prevent stiffness, frozen shoulder, and tight scar tissue formation around the implant pocket.
Autologous (Tissue-Based) reconstruction recovery
Autologous reconstruction (such as a DIEP flap) is a more complex, major operation because it involves two distinct surgical sites: the reconstructed chest mound and the donor harvest area (usually the lower abdomen).
Initial healing window: Requires a hospital stay of two to five days, with an overall recovery period of six to eight weeks before resuming normal routines.
Donor site management: Because abdominal muscles or tissues are involved, patients must avoid bending, twisting, or lifting anything heavier than a gallon of milk for at least six weeks to protect the deep facial repairs.
Mobility milestones: Recovery starts with short, gentle indoor walks immediately after surgery to promote circulation and prevent blood clots, gradually building up distance each week.
Physical therapy focus: Postural retraining and cautious core re-engagement once the surgeon gives medical clearance, ensuring the abdominal wall heals securely without strain.
Essential rehabilitation practices
Regardless of the chosen surgical path, effective physical therapy incorporates specialised techniques to restore physical freedom:
Scar mobilisation: Professional massage techniques to soften surgical scars and prevent tight binding of underlying tissues.
Lymphatic drainage: Gentle massage protocols to reduce swelling and encourage fluid movement through the lymphatic pathways.
Let’s pull together everything we have talked about into one simple, easy-to-understand guide.
Here is a summary of the complete journey-from understanding what breast cancer is and busting myths, to managing emotions and navigating surgery and recovery.
1. Is surgery a “cure”?
What it means: A mastectomy (removing the breast) is a powerful tool to take out the local tumor, but it isn’t an automatic, guaranteed cure on its own.
The Example: Think of it like pulling a weed out of a garden. You got the main plant out, but if tiny seeds or roots already spread elsewhere in the soil, you still need extra care (like medication) to make sure they don’t grow back.
2. The cancer’s “personality” (Biomarkers)
What it means: Not all breast cancers are the same. Doctors test the cancer cells for specific “locks and labels” (like hormones or proteins) to figure out how fast they grow and what medicine will stop them.
The Example: It’s like figuring out what kind of fuel a car engine takes (gasoline, diesel, or electricity) so you know exactly how to fix or run it.
3. Busting common myths
The Reality: Many rumors about breast cancer are false.
Men can get breast cancer too (about one per cent of cases) because everyone has a small amount of breast tissue.
Most lumps are harmless (like a harmless pebble in your shoe, not a dangerous nail).
Underwire bras and deodorants do not cause cancer.
Most people diagnosed (about 85 per cent) have no family history of it, which is why regular checks are vital for everyone.
By Robert Ekow Grimmond-Thompson
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