The Rural Initiatives for Self-Empowerment Ghana (RISE-Ghana), a non-government organisation, has underscored the urgent need to invest in midwives to improve maternal and child healthcare and adapt to climate change and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
According to the RISE-Ghana, climate change was affecting healthcare delivery globally and locally and there was a need to invest in midwives to adapt climate resilient solutions to ensure positive maternal and child health outcomes and contribute to protect the environment.
This was in a statement to commemorate this year’s International Day of the Midwife on the theme ‘Midwives: A Vital Climate Solution’ and copied to the Ghana News Agency, by Mr Awal Ahmed Kariama, Executive Director, RISE-Ghana.
‘RISE-Ghana joins the rest of the world to salute midwives across the globe and particular those working under difficult conditions to deliver quality services to mothers and babies.
‘This year’s team could not have come at a better time than n
ow when climate change poses the greatest health challenge evidenced by increased heatwaves and natural disasters which sadly disproportionately affects women and babies,’ it said.
The statement revealed that there was evidence that healthcare services were responsible for five percent of greenhouse gas emissions globally, adding that midwives had huge potentials to adapt health systems and advance local and international targets to lower carbon emission.
‘Their vital solutions to climate change can be seen and felt in many respects, for instance, midwives deliver environmentally sustainable health services and play a key role in making health systems more climate resilient,’ it added.
Source: Ghana News Agency