Department of Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Volta Region, Ho, Ghana.
Department of Nursing, College of Health Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2021 Apr 9;21(1):287. doi: 10.1186/s12884-021-03762-0.
In 2017, a total of 295,000 women lost their lives due to pregnancy and childbirth across the globe, with sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia accounting for approximately 86 % of all maternal deaths. The maternal mortality ratio in Ghana is exceptionally high, with approximately 308 deaths/100,000 live births in 2017. Most of these maternal deaths occur in rural areas than in urban areas. Thus, we aimed to explore and gain insights into midwives' experiences of working and providing women-centred care in rural northern Ghana.
A qualitative descriptive exploratory design was used to explore the challenges midwives face in delivering women-centred midwifery care in low-resource, rural areas. A total of 30 midwives practicing in the Upper East Region of Ghana were purposefully selected. Data were collected using individual semistructured interviews and analysed through qualitative content analysis.
Five main themes emerged from the data analysis. These themes included were: inadequate infrastructure (lack of bed and physical space), shortage of midwifery staff, logistical challenges, lack of motivation, and limited in-service training opportunities.
Midwives experience myriad challenges in providing sufficient women-centred care in rural Ghana. To overcome these challenges, measures such as providing adequate beds and physical space, making more equipment available, and increasing midwifery staff strength to reduce individual workload, coupled with motivation from facility managers, are needed.
2017 年，全球共有 29.5 万名妇女死于妊娠和分娩，其中撒哈拉以南非洲和南亚约占所有产妇死亡人数的 86%。加纳的产妇死亡率异常高，2017 年约为每 10 万例活产中有 308 例死亡。这些产妇死亡大多发生在农村地区，而非城市地区。因此，我们旨在探讨并深入了解加纳北部农村地区助产士的工作经验以及为妇女提供以妇女为中心的护理。
采用定性描述性探索性设计，探讨助产士在资源匮乏的农村地区提供以妇女为中心的助产护理所面临的挑战。总共选择了加纳上东部地区的 30 名助产士进行研究。使用个人半结构化访谈收集数据，并通过定性内容分析进行分析。
从数据分析中得出了五个主要主题。这些主题包括：基础设施不足（缺乏床位和物理空间）、助产士人员短缺、后勤挑战、缺乏动力以及在职培训机会有限。
加纳农村地区的助产士在提供充分的以妇女为中心的护理方面面临着诸多挑战。为了克服这些挑战，需要采取措施，例如提供足够的床位和物理空间，增加更多设备的供应，并增加助产士人员的数量以减轻个人工作量，同时还需要医疗机构管理人员提供激励。
