Ghana - Ghana Maternal Health Survey 2007

v2.0 - Public use dataset and other documentation on the Ghana Maternal Health Survey.

2012-07-09

This is the first time the Maternal Health Survey has been implemented in the country. The project started with the name Maternal Mortality Survey before it was changed to Maaternal Health Survey

The principal objective of the 2007 Ghana Maternal Health Survey (GMHS) is intended to serve as a source of data on maternal health and maternal death for policymakers and the research community involved in the Reducing Maternal Morbidity and Mortality (R3M) program.

Specifically, the data collected in the GMHS is intended to help the Government of Ghana and the consortium of organizations participating in the R3M program to launch a series of collaborative efforts to significantly expand women's access to modern family planning services and comprehensive abortion care (CAC), reduce unwanted fertility, and reduce severe complications and deaths resulting from unsafe abortion.

The GMHS collected data from a nationally representative sample of households and women of reproductive age (15-49). The data were collected in two phases. The primary objectives of the 2007 GMHS were:

• To collect data at the national level that will allow an assessment of the level of maternal mortality in Ghana for the country as a whole, for the R3M program regions (Greater Accra, Ashanti and Eastern Regions), and for the non-program regions;

• To identify specific causes of maternal and non-maternal deaths, and specifically to be able to identify deaths due to abortion-related causes, among adult women;

•To collect data on women’s perceptions and experience with antenatal, maternity, and emergency obstetrical care, especially with regard to care received before, during, and after the termination or abortion of a pregnancy;

• To measure indicators of the utilization of maternal health services and especially post-abortion care services in Ghana; and

• To provide baseline data for the R3M program and for follow-on studies and surveys that will be used to observe possible reductions in maternal mortality as well as reductions in abortion-related mortality.It also contributes to the ever-growing international database on maternal health-related information.

The pregnancy-related mortality ratio (PRMR) for the 7-year period preceding the survey, calculated from the sibling history data, is 451 deaths per 100,000 live births and for the 5-year period preceding the survey is 378 deaths per 100,000 live births.Induced

abortion accounts for more than one in ten maternal deaths and the obstetric risk from induced abortion is highest among young women age 15-24. Although almost all women seek antenatal care from a health professional, only one in two women deliver in a health facility, and three in four women seek postnatal care. Despite the emphasis on continuity of care, less than one in two women receive all three maternity care components (antenatal care, delivery care, and postnatal care) from a skilled provider. Clearly, Ghana has a long way to go towards achieving the MDG-5 target.

Sample survey data [ssd]

Individual