Department of Health and Rehabilitation, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
School of Health Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Int J Health Plann Manage. 2023 Jul;38(4):898-903. doi: 10.1002/hpm.3639. Epub 2023 Mar 28.
Maternal and infant mortality includes a number of health challenges in Ghana, with outcomes among the worst in the subregion and the world. Our aim here was to provide insights into how Ghana has approached these challenges, with a view to making suggestions for the future. Ghana has made significant gains in reducing infant and maternal deaths in the past decade through initiatives like the Free Maternal Care Policy, the Community-based Health Planning Services, and the National Health Insurance Policy. These policies have improved financial access to maternal and obstetric health services, facility-based delivery, and antenatal care services in particular. However, a number of challenges still hinder access to maternal and child health outcomes. Poor infrastructure, human resource challenges, poor access to essential medicines, poor quality of care, and superstitious and cultural beliefs have been noted in the literature. We suggest that while providing the necessary human and financial resources, other initiatives including the promotion of maternal health education, supervised home delivery, and zero maternal death interventions should be encouraged to help improve maternal and child health outcomes in Ghana.
孕产妇死亡率包括加纳的一些健康挑战,其结果是该次区域和世界上最差的。我们的目的是提供加纳如何应对这些挑战的深入了解,以期为未来提出建议。加纳在过去十年中通过一些举措取得了显著进展,如免费产妇保健政策、社区卫生规划服务和国家健康保险政策,这些政策改善了产妇和产科保健服务、以机构为基础的分娩和产前保健服务的财政获取途径。然而,一些挑战仍然阻碍着获得母婴健康成果。文献中指出,基础设施差、人力资源挑战、基本药物获取不足、护理质量差以及迷信和文化信仰等问题仍然存在。我们建议,在提供必要的人力和财政资源的同时,还应鼓励采取其他举措,包括促进产妇健康教育、监督家庭分娩和零孕产妇死亡干预,以帮助改善加纳的母婴健康成果。