Zero maternal mortality in 2023 at Ghanaian cooperation hospital
The medical success is attributed to the increased implementation of scientific findings in practice and health care, including as part of the DZIF Malaria Birth Cohort study
The Presbyterian Hospital in Agogo, Ghana, recorded zero deaths among women during or after childbirth last year. This is a major medical success after 499 fatalities in 2020. The hospital management attributes the dramatic decline also to the intensive collaboration with the scientific community: with the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR) in Ghana and its cooperation partner, the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM), both partner institutions of the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF).
When complications arise during pregnancy or childbirth, a race against time begins. This applies to both the global North and the global South. Zero maternal mortality is therefore an outstanding achievement for any hospital. Last year, the Presbyterian Hospital in Agogo, Ghana, achieved just that: among the 2,126 women who chose to give birth to their baby here, there was not a single death.
The hospital management attributes this success to the intensified cooperation with other healthcare facilities and stakeholders in the region in recent years, but above all to the increased transfer of scientific findings into practice. In particular, the hospital cooperates closely with the Infectious Disease Epidemiology research group at the BNITM and the KCCR in Ghana. The research group is jointly led by Prof. Dr Jürgen May, Chairman of the BNITM Management Board, and Dr Oumou Maïga-Ascofaré of the KCCR, both scientists in the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF).
Preventive and follow-up examinations for pregnant women and newborns
Over the past four years, the cooperation partners have achieved, among other things, that more pregnant women in the Asante Akim North District attend preventive and follow-up examinations, have their iron levels monitored, are tested for malaria and consider a hospital birth instead of a home birth if there are risks. Midwives and traditional birth attendants have been trained to better recognise when it is safer to give birth in hospital. The Presbyterian Hospital also cooperates with smaller health facilities in the district and advises them on how to recognise critical situations at an early stage so that they can refer pregnant women in good time. It also ensures that sufficient blood transfusions are available.
Health monitoring as part of the DZIF Malaria Birth Cohort study
Malaria during pregnancy poses considerable risks for the mother and her foetus. More than 1,200 women in Asante Akim North District, an area with a high incidence of malaria, have so far taken part in the DZIF-supported Malaria Birth Cohort study. The longitudinal study investigates the neonatal immune status of newborns at birth – after potential exposure during pregnancy – and follows the development of immunity over the first 36 months of life. Ten communities in the district were included in the study. For health monitoring, the pregnant women were visited at home on a weekly basis by health care workers and on a monthly basis by a midwife. At each hospital visit, they were offered free malaria tests, urine analyses and tests to determine their iron levels. Free round-the-clock transport to the hospital was available for child birth and financial assistance was offered to cover hospital costs.
"One year of zero maternal mortality—this success has many mothers and fathers," says Dr Maïga-Ascofaré: "The many research assistants who regularly travel to ten communities around Agogo to advise pregnant women; the midwives who examine the expectant mothers every month, before AND after the birth; the colleagues in the laboratories who immediately report any bacterial infections; the researchers who have been conducting the Malaria Birth Cohort study since 2019, and many more."
Source: Press release of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM)
