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An Assessment of Factors Influencing Access to Skilled Delivery in the Sunyani West District in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana

Received: 26 March 2017     Accepted: 18 April 2017     Published: 15 June 2017
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Abstract

Maternal morality has long been an Achilles heel for many developing nations due to lack of adequate health care and family planning services, near absence or minimal access to skilled labour and emergency care, pregnancy complications such as haemorrhage and sepsis. With the Millennium Development goals fast approaching, most developing nations are still in a race to meet set targets. In this study, the objective is to ascertain factors influencing access to skilled delivery in the Sunyani West District of the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana. We specifically sought to assess the relationship between antenatal clinic attendance and use of skilled delivery, identify socio- cultural barriers impeding pregnant women from accessing skilled delivery and know if “task- shifting” and use of alternative cadres to provide skilled delivery is feasible. As an explorative cross-sectional case study design, the study was conducted among pregnant women in the Sunyani West district. Questionnaires were the instruments for data collection. Analysis was done with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 for windows. There was a relationship between awareness of antenatal services and attendance of Antenatal services. Also, a relationship between attendance of antenatal before childbirth and the places that the women in the district usually deliver their children was established. In addition, there was a relationship between the respondents’ family having a tradition of giving birth at the hospital and the choice of the places that the women in the district usually deliver their children. The study recommended that in order to solve the challenges associated with skilled delivery a multifaceted approach need to be adopted.

Published in World Journal of Public Health (Volume 2, Issue 3)
DOI 10.11648/j.wjph.20170203.13
Page(s) 102-110
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2017. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Skilled Delivery, Labour, Antenatal Care, Task Shifting, Pregnancies, Traditional Birth Attendants

References
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[11] Group SMI-A. The safe motherhood action agenda: Priorities for the next decade (PDF). Colombo, Sri Lanka. Inter-Agency Group for Safe Motherhood. 1997.
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Awuni Prosper Mandela Amaltinga, Ninsawu Nicholas Nakpan, Narh Vanessah, Mary Osei Bonsu, Abrefa Bridget. (2017). An Assessment of Factors Influencing Access to Skilled Delivery in the Sunyani West District in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. World Journal of Public Health, 2(3), 102-110. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.wjph.20170203.13

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    ACS Style

    Awuni Prosper Mandela Amaltinga; Ninsawu Nicholas Nakpan; Narh Vanessah; Mary Osei Bonsu; Abrefa Bridget. An Assessment of Factors Influencing Access to Skilled Delivery in the Sunyani West District in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. World J. Public Health 2017, 2(3), 102-110. doi: 10.11648/j.wjph.20170203.13

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    AMA Style

    Awuni Prosper Mandela Amaltinga, Ninsawu Nicholas Nakpan, Narh Vanessah, Mary Osei Bonsu, Abrefa Bridget. An Assessment of Factors Influencing Access to Skilled Delivery in the Sunyani West District in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. World J Public Health. 2017;2(3):102-110. doi: 10.11648/j.wjph.20170203.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.wjph.20170203.13,
      author = {Awuni Prosper Mandela Amaltinga and Ninsawu Nicholas Nakpan and Narh Vanessah and Mary Osei Bonsu and Abrefa Bridget},
      title = {An Assessment of Factors Influencing Access to Skilled Delivery in the Sunyani West District in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana},
      journal = {World Journal of Public Health},
      volume = {2},
      number = {3},
      pages = {102-110},
      doi = {10.11648/j.wjph.20170203.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.wjph.20170203.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.wjph.20170203.13},
      abstract = {Maternal morality has long been an Achilles heel for many developing nations due to lack of adequate health care and family planning services, near absence or minimal access to skilled labour and emergency care, pregnancy complications such as haemorrhage and sepsis. With the Millennium Development goals fast approaching, most developing nations are still in a race to meet set targets. In this study, the objective is to ascertain factors influencing access to skilled delivery in the Sunyani West District of the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana. We specifically sought to assess the relationship between antenatal clinic attendance and use of skilled delivery, identify socio- cultural barriers impeding pregnant women from accessing skilled delivery and know if “task- shifting” and use of alternative cadres to provide skilled delivery is feasible. As an explorative cross-sectional case study design, the study was conducted among pregnant women in the Sunyani West district. Questionnaires were the instruments for data collection. Analysis was done with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 for windows. There was a relationship between awareness of antenatal services and attendance of Antenatal services. Also, a relationship between attendance of antenatal before childbirth and the places that the women in the district usually deliver their children was established. In addition, there was a relationship between the respondents’ family having a tradition of giving birth at the hospital and the choice of the places that the women in the district usually deliver their children. The study recommended that in order to solve the challenges associated with skilled delivery a multifaceted approach need to be adopted.},
     year = {2017}
    }
    

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    T1  - An Assessment of Factors Influencing Access to Skilled Delivery in the Sunyani West District in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana
    AU  - Awuni Prosper Mandela Amaltinga
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    PB  - Science Publishing Group
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    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.wjph.20170203.13
    AB  - Maternal morality has long been an Achilles heel for many developing nations due to lack of adequate health care and family planning services, near absence or minimal access to skilled labour and emergency care, pregnancy complications such as haemorrhage and sepsis. With the Millennium Development goals fast approaching, most developing nations are still in a race to meet set targets. In this study, the objective is to ascertain factors influencing access to skilled delivery in the Sunyani West District of the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana. We specifically sought to assess the relationship between antenatal clinic attendance and use of skilled delivery, identify socio- cultural barriers impeding pregnant women from accessing skilled delivery and know if “task- shifting” and use of alternative cadres to provide skilled delivery is feasible. As an explorative cross-sectional case study design, the study was conducted among pregnant women in the Sunyani West district. Questionnaires were the instruments for data collection. Analysis was done with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 for windows. There was a relationship between awareness of antenatal services and attendance of Antenatal services. Also, a relationship between attendance of antenatal before childbirth and the places that the women in the district usually deliver their children was established. In addition, there was a relationship between the respondents’ family having a tradition of giving birth at the hospital and the choice of the places that the women in the district usually deliver their children. The study recommended that in order to solve the challenges associated with skilled delivery a multifaceted approach need to be adopted.
    VL  - 2
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Author Information
  • Institute of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Hanoi Medical University, Hanoi, Vietnam

  • Department of Clinical Medicine, Mili Med Hospital, Techiman, Ghana

  • Faculty of Public Health and Allied Sciences, Catholic University, Fiapre, Ghana

  • Department of Nursing, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana

  • Department of Nursing, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana

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