Abstract:
The main objective of the study is to assess maternal health in Ghana using
empirical evidence from Akatsi and Keta districts of the Volta Region. Interviews were
conducted from a sample size of 6,250 respondents within the reproductive age group of
15-49 years drawn from both districts in 2007. The results show that most of the women
had only basic education and were generally petty traders, farmers and fishmongers.
Overwhelming majority of the women stated that there was no community-arranged
preparedness to aid them in times of emergency obstetric care. A significant proportion of
the women (about 30%) relied on relatives/friends/home or traditional birth attendants
(TBAs) to deliver their babies, while the road network in both districts was poor.
The Government of Ghana should therefore rehabilitate roads or construct new
ones that could help the people transport emergency complications to the health facility
on time to prevent deaths. These TBAs should be trained to recognize complications and
not to manage complications professionally and they should be motivated to make
referrals to mainstream health facilities. The Government of Ghana should aim at
increasing girls’ participation at all levels of the education system in the country since
education is the key to ending poverty.
