Fako East Constituency Member of Parliament (MP), Hon Gladys Ikome Etombi, has given the fight against maternal mortality in the South West Region a new impetus with the opening of a Mother and Child Welfare Unit at the hospital.

The Unit is intended to enhance the health of pregnant mothers and unborn babies as well as new born children in the hospital in particular and the South West Region in General.

Hon. Etombi handed over the refurbished Unit to the Director of the Limbe Regional Hospital, Dr Name, on Wednesday, May 9, 2018, during a ceremony that took place at the hospital premises.

Speaking at the event, Hon. Etombi said she was moved by love to improve the health of women in the Region.

It is hoped that the Unit will greatly reduce the surging maternal mortality rate in the Region and the country at large.

Speaking at the event, the Director of the Limbe Regional Hospital, Dr Name, said: “This building to be handed over to the hospital authorities today will be used as Mother and Child Welfare Centre…this Centre shall closely follow up pregnant women, do routine lab examinations, offer vaccinations to pregnant women against tetanus, sensitse them on better family planning methods, offer free treated mosquito-bed nets to women among other things.”

The Director also said the Centre shall cater for the welfare of children, carry out free vaccination on children aged zero to eleven months. “Children shall also be immunised against eleven diseases, among them, polio, tetanus, tuberculosis, whooping cough, hepatitis B, haemophilic influenza, measles and yellow fever.”

According to Dr Name, more than 782 women in every 100,000 live births do die during deliveries. In the Southwest Region, 49 women died, while giving birth in 2016 out of 26,376 deliveries, while in 2017, 41 women lost their lives during delivery.

“This Unit will therefore help to mitigate this trend,” the Medic said.