Midwives in Ghana to be scarce in 10 years - practitioner predicts

A midwife, Madam Faustina P. Sam, has predicted that it is possible that midwives would be scarce in the country within the next ten (10) years.

“Or the ratio of midwives to patients would be minimal,” she intimated.

Madam Faustina P. Sam owns the Paradise Maternity Home near Ablekuma in the Ga Central Municipality in Ghana.

According to her, the government has not put in place strategic measure to make the sector enticing enough to lure more youth into the profession adding that most of the youth prefer to do other courses such as accounting, marketing, law, and a host of others and later complain there is no job in the country when they complete the university.

She said others too who find their way into the profession travel outside where they are paid fat salaries; a situation she describes as a security treat.

Madam Faustina P. Sam who has been a practitioner for more than thirty (30) years said the private ones were the worst affected because the claims received from the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) per head for delivering pregnant women was nothing to write home about.

Madam Faustina who raised the above sentiment in an interaction with Ghanadistricts.com however called on government to increase the premium.

Although she said money should not be the main focus of motivation, she suggested that government could employ other means possible to make the practice more lucrative to encourage more of the youth to ply the profession and hence creating more jobs.

Madam Faustina also revealed that most of the midwives already in the profession were getting old and needed to be replaced.

“All of the midwives in the country I meet at general meetings are old and young girls in this century would not like to take up this job,” she added.

Paradise Maternity Home at Fanmilk Junction near Ablekuma was established in 2001 when the town was still at its developing stages and was the first health facility to operate in the area.