Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies

This weekend, we will welcome a new set of UCLA Pediatric Residents to Humjibre. They will be implementing a training program for local traditional birth attendants.This is one of two programs begun this past year, by GHEI, to encourage safe deliveries and improve child and maternal health.

While Ghana has made significant progress toward meeting many of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, progress in MDGs 4 and 5, reducing child mortality and improving maternal health, is still relatively lagging[1]. One way to foster improvements in these areas is to increase skilled birth attendance and facility-based deliveries. GHEI’s trainings in partnership with UCLA and our new Health Facility Delivery Incentive Program (HFDIP) do just those things.

Our annual evaluation survey found that in Humjibre, where one of only a few health clinics in our area is located, about 25% of deliveries over the past five years still occurred at home. Even though pregnant women are exempted by Ghana’s Ministry of Health from paying prenatal care and delivery fees[2], providers still generally collect a fee from women in the form of supplies necessary for delivery. To help offset this cost, HFDIP provides expectant mothers with the most commonly collected supplies.

Every other week, we open our doors to women who are six months or more pregnant to hand out incentive packages, offer education on safe delivery, and administer a short survey. After delivery, we follow-up with women to find out where they delivered and why. We give them a baby blanket as a thank-you for returning.

This program has proven to be extremely popular. Since it was launched in November 2013, 122 women have participated in the first survey and 45 have returned post-delivery. Considering the total number of births in Humjibre over the course of a year, we estimate that almost all expectant mothers are electing to participate in the program.

When asked about the package during the post-delivery survey, many women stated that the package “helped a lot” and “limited expenses.” One explained that she “was benefited because the clinic collected the incentive given to me [by GHEI] and one of each of the items remained.” Another told a story, saying that “[The package] helped her a lot because she came for the incentive and, after one week, went to deliver. If not for our incentive, she would not have had anything.”

While it is still too early to tell if this program is helping significantly more women choose to deliver at the clinic, there is no doubt that women appreciate it; and it is helping them get the supplies they need to more safely deliver.

[1]United Nations in Ghana, Millennium Development Goals in Ghana, http://unghana.org/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=81&Itemid=448 (24 April 2014).

[2] Ghana Ministry of Health, Guidelines for implementing the exemption policy on maternal deliveries, Report No. MoH/Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation-59. 

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