Authorities at the St Patrick’s Midwifery Training School have organised their maiden graduation programme, with a call on the graduates to be at the forefront of the crusade to curb maternal mortality in the country.
The new midwives were also asked to be proficient and affable in providing services for expectant mothers and encourage them to seek medical services at regular intervals to keep them healthy, thereby enhancing safe delivery.
The Principal of the training school, Mrs Alice Donkor, who made the call during the ceremony, said curbing maternal mortality in Ghana would contribute more meaningfully to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The midwifery training school, which was established 48 years ago, used to offer a two-year certificate course for Enrolled Nurses and Midwives.
However, the Enrolled Nursing programme was phased out in the 80’s, while the Midwifery certificate continued until 2006 when it was replaced with a three-year diploma programme. The first batch graduated on Saturday, July 17, 2010.
Collaboration among the Kumasi Catholic Archdiocese, the Ministry of Health and the Nurses and Midwives Council made it possible for the diploma programme to take off in the school in 2006.
In all, 37 midwives graduated last Saturday, with 100 per cent passes.
Two of the graduates had distinction in Midwifery, with 23 obtaining credits in one or more courses, while 12 of them had passes in all courses.
Commending the graduates for blazing the trail for academic excellence, Mrs Donkor expressed concern over the deplorable infrastructure in the school which made it impossible for it to admit more students for the midwifery programme.
In an address read on his behalf, the Archbishop of the Kumasi Catholic Archdiocese, the Most Reverend Thomas Kwaku Mensah, prayed for God’s guidance for the graduates as they began a career designed to serve mankind and God.
He said they were starting work at a time when the issue of abortion was generating a national debate.
He advised the graduands to make conscious effort to save lives, instead of destroying them, stressing that it was important for them to protect lives and they should, therefore, not be enticed to take any decision that would destroy life at any stage of pregnancy.
He also urged them to accept posting to rural communities to enable them to have fruitful interaction with women in deprived areas.
That, he said, would make women appreciate the essence of sourcing for medical care at the early stages of pregnancy.
In his address, the Ashanti Regional Director of Health Services, Alhaji Dr Mohammed Bin Ibrahim, said the graduands were assuming duty at a time when many midwives were reaching the retiring age.
Expressing concern over the rate of maternal mortality in the country, he said about 90 per cent of them were preventable and, therefore, challenged the graduands to educate women in their localities and also put up attitudes that would encourage women to access their services.
“The women are your clients and so you should accord them top priority in your operations. This is because without them you will have no jobs,” he said.
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