The Births and Deaths Registry has launched and handed over the revised combined Maternal and Child Health Record Books to the Ghana Health Service.
The book makes the registration procedure easier to complete and expedites the issuance of birth certificates, resulting in the birthright acquisition of a Ghana National Identity Number.
To ensure that the nation can gather these data for national planning and socioeconomic development, the new book now addresses notification of births and foetal deaths.
This was declared last Friday at the launch and transfer event in Dodowa, in the Greater Accra Region, by Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo, a top presidential advisor. The event served as a preview of the sensitization materials that will be used beginning in June for public education, media engagement, and sensitization.
Nearly 1.2 million copies of the updated booklet had been printed, according to Mr. Osafo-Marfo, thanks to the cooperation of the Ghana Health Service and the Births and Deaths Registry under the Public Sector Reform for Results Project.
“The original planned functions of pre- and post-natal documentations, as well as the notification of births and foetal deaths in the nation, will be served by the production of this newly redesigned booklet”, he continued.
The first book was a home health record for expectant moms, new babies, and kids that included all the information needed to support and preserve their health as well as the health of everybody in their family.
He praised the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, noting that his approach of keeping doors open had resulted in the product that was anticipated to raise the bar for birth and death registration in the nation.
He commended the Registrar of Births and Deaths for seeing through the procedure to guarantee that the partnership produced such a result. According to Henrietta Lamptey, Registrar of Births and Deaths, the registration of foetal deaths is essential for socioeconomic growth.
“The statistics derived from the data influence national developmental planning and programming. It is, therefore, important to get the information right to facilitate effective public policy development and decision-making,” she added.
The Ghana Health Service has mechanisms in place to enable every mother to access health facilities for pre- and post-natal services, she added, because the register recognised the crucial role that citizens play in birth and death registration.
Ms. Lamptey emphasised that these mechanisms were equally vital for guaranteeing that each child was registered and legally identifiable as soon as they were born, emphasising that registration should be given the same weight regardless of the circumstances surrounding the death.
The purpose of the health record books is to make registration easier and allow citizens to fulfil their responsibilities efficiently. Ms. Lamptey declared that the registry has created sensitization materials for public education with the help of the World Bank, allowing people to understand the vital role they play in registering births and deaths, especially those involving foetuses.