Midwives in the country had been urged to show more poise and commitment to their work to ensure the success of the free maternal health care and delivery policy recently introduced by the government.
     
Madam Rizwan Hawa Amoako-Agyei, National Chairperson of the Ghana Registered Midwives Group (GRMG), who made this known also called on the government to provide resources to enable midwives to deliver to expectation.
     
She said midwives are strategic and crucial stakeholders in the implementation of the new policy which would increase their work load thus pose a big challenge to them.
    
The chairperson, who was speaking on the theme "Zero Tolerance for Maternal and Infant Mortality" at the launch of the Ashanti Regional branch of the GRMG, said the challenges which the new policy would bring in its wake calls for more commitment to duty and tolerance for patients who would access health care.
    
Madam Amoako-Agyei expressed concern about the Ashanti Region's 20 per cent contribution to maternal and infant mortality country wide, and called for more proactive measures to reduce the trend.
     
Dr  Winfred Richard Anane, Minister for Transportation who inaugurated the group, said the government has improved rural road network by extending it from 38,000 kilometres to 63.000 kilometres between 2001 and 2007.  He commended the group for not embarking on strike action and urged them to continue to work hard to save lives.