The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has awarded a Senior Staff Midwife of the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, Racheal Hesse Matey, as the Best Practicing Midwife for Greater Accra Region.
She was selected as the overall winner among over 26 midwives in the region during the national launch of the 33rd International Day of the Midwife (IDM) and Awards Ceremony 2023.
This year’s IDM, which took place at the Medical School Auditorium of the University of Cape Coast, was under the theme “Together Again: From Evidence to Reality”.
The GHS had earlier given prior notices to various hospitals in the region to submit personal innovations and compete in a practical session for the award. After a thorough assessment, Mrs Matey emerged as the winner of the award due to her outstanding contributions to the field of midwifery.
During the award ceremony, the GHS presented the Midwife with a plaque, tablet, and a fridge to appreciate her instrumentality in the field of midwifery.
Appreciation
Mrs Matey expressed gratitude to God and entire management of the Ridge Hospital for their unflinching support towards her success.
She said, “First of all, God deserves the plaudits for how far He has brought me. I am fortunate to be working in a facility that is equipped enough. This granted me the opportunity to be selected for training with Kybele USA to provide advanced resuscitation of newborn babies. Through this, I have been able to save the lives of many babies”.
In her daily work, she revealed that she attends ward rounds every morning to assess all the newborns and check for possible jaundice cases using the TCB (Translucent Bilirubinometer).
The Midwife also indicated that this recognition has brought to the fore the invaluable contribution of midwives to healthcare in Ghana.
She expressed the hope that her recognition will inspire more women to pursue careers in midwifery and contribute to improving maternal and child health outcomes in the country.
Responsibility
According to her, the award brings on her greater responsibility in helping reduce maternal mortality to the barest minimum in the country.
“I am fascinated by the science and experience of pregnancy, labour, and postnatal care. This inspires me to undertake in-depth studies on it. I love to educate mothers on labour issues. I go to radio and TV stations to undertake such educational activities.
“I have also created a WhatsApp platform for pregnant women where we have such discussions. We also have days for exercising and swimming. Labour is beautiful but painful and creates a lot of anxiety in our mothers. Our conversations on the platform seek to calm them down,” she noted.
She added that since labor is not only about the woman, she added that she engages the fathers as well by teaching them how to perform the sacral massage and how to properly take care of their pregnant women.
Consequently, she revealed that the fathers end up coming to the labour wards during delivery to provide their wives moral support and sometimes cut the umbilical cord of babies.
Commitment
Mrs Matey reaffirmed her commitment to improve her knowledge to help save the lives of more women and babies, saying “my greatest joy as a midwife is seeing mothers go through the pregnancy journey smoothly and have a safe delivery”
The Midwife revealed that she would organise sensitisation programmes in churches, communities, leveraging public education, stakeholder engagement and quality healthcare services to ensure that no life is lost to maternal mortality.
The engagement, she said, will seek to remove all barriers, misconceptions and unfair treatments that increase the vulnerability of pregnant women and girls to maternal mortality.
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