Ghana To Lose 40% Of Midwives

In the next ten years, Ghana will lose forty per cent (40%) of its midwives. This shocking revelation was made by the Minister of Health, Honorable Sherry Ayittey. At a Meet The Press session in Accra, the minister revealed that in the next ten years, the country would be losing forty, percent of its midwives in the health sector since they would be hitting their retirement age. Responding to a question on why statistics provided by the Ministry showed a decline in the number of midwives, Ms Ayettey explained that the number of midwives was limited with most of them being older women and as such were under a lot of pressure. However, she stressed that the ministry was putting in place special programs to train more midwives to accommodate the current situation. The Public Relations Officer of the ministry of Health, Mr Anthony Goodman, confirmed the minister�s revelation but stressed on the ministry�s efforts to curb the situation. In an interview with The Independent, the PRO explained that due to the former use of traditional methods of child delivery, most of the midwives were older women. He also explained that due to the limited number (two) if midwifery training institutions in the country, the number of midwives was limited. As measures to curb the massive shortage of midwives in the future, Mr. Goodman opined that the ministry was increasing the number of midwifery training institutions in the country from two to twelve.