Record Details

Understanding barriers to maternal child health services utilisation in northern Ghana

Journal of Social Development in Africa

View Archive Info
 
 
Field Value
 
Title Understanding barriers to maternal child health services utilisation in northern Ghana
 
Creator Galaa, SZ
Daare, K
 
Subject Barriers, maternal and child health services, northern regions, Ghana, traditional birth attendants
 
Description This study sought to create better understanding about existing barriers to the use of maternal and child health services in northern Ghana. Using the survey research design, the study integrates outcome and process approaches to assessing barriers to the utilisation of maternal health services. Data were collected through primary interviews of 496 pregnancy and delivery episodes cases. The findings show that self-reported antenatal and postnatal attendance was high in all the districts surveyed. However, one major barrier has been the low quality of services provided. The findings also indicate that although health facility delivery is high in the districts surveyed, only the well-to-do non-literate, urbanite women and the educated patronise supervised normal health delivery care. Due to social and physical access constraints, most rural-based, illiterate and poor women perceived supervised delivery as an option only for pregnant mothers experiencing complications of pregnancy or labour. Recommendations to break existing barriers to maternal and child health services in outlying rural communities included the need to improve the quality of maternal and child health service through the supply of major logistic deficiencies, the need to provide support to the facilities with 4-wheel auxiliary drive pickup trucks to facilitate referrals of clients in pregnancy or labour complications as public transport is grossly lacking in the outlying communities, and the need to step up the training of traditional birth attendants (TBAs), as an alternative channel for supervised deliveries.KEYWORDS : Barriers, maternal and child health services, northern regions, Ghana, traditional birth attendants
 
Publisher School of Social Work, University of Zimbabwe
 
Contributor —
 
Date 2010-05-07
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Peer-reviewed Article
 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier http://www.ajol.info/index.php/jsda/article/view/54260
10.4314/jsda.v23i2.54260
 
Source Journal of Social Development in Africa; Vol 23, No 2 (2008)
1012-1080
 
Language eng
 
Relation http://www.ajol.info/index.php/jsda/article/view/54260/42782
 
Rights Copyright for articles published in this journal is retained by the journal.