Experiences of maternity care from women's and providers' perspectives in a peri-urban setting in Ghana

The provision of quality maternity care is an important public health issue because a healthypregnancy can be the basis for a mother’s and child’s lifelong good health. However, the globaleffort to reduce maternal and new-born mortality and morbidity in low-income settings hasfocusedon access to services and has tended to neglect aspects of care. In Ghana, a free maternal healthcaredelivery policy was introduced in 2008. Since then, the proportion of births that occurred withoutskilled services reduced from 40% (2007) to 21% in (2018). One reason women may not beaccessing care is because they anticipate the treatment they receive as disrespectful or uncaring.This study aims to explore the experiences and expectations of maternity care from both women’sand providers’ perspectives.MethodsA qualitative feminist approach was used in this study. A purposive sampling method wasemployed to recruit 20 women who had given birth in the previous 12 months at the Tema GeneralHospital (Tema Metropolitan District, Greater Accra Region, Ghana), and 10 maternity healthprofessionalsfrom the maternity ward. Semi-structured interviews were conducted between March2018 and July 2018. Thematic analysis was used, and the data was interpreted within the contextof an existing quality of care framework produced by the World Health Organisation in 2018.ResultsMaternity healthcare providers reported poor working environments in the health facilities andlack of recognition of their role, leading to feelings of demoralisation; this has contributed to thehealthcare users’ experiences of low quality and dehumanised care. Women revealed how muchreligion impacted on their decision making; they described how they would consult pastors todecide whether it was appropriate to go to the hospital, even when they were in labour. Both themothers and midwives are religious and referred to God in terms of whether things will go well.viWomen in labour lacked emotional support, experienced neglect, poor communication, as well asphysical and verbal abuse. One of the more blatant issues in the Ghanaian context was a dominantdiscourse of the uncooperative woman, which served to allow midwives power and control overwomen and their bodies, using punishment for non-compliance.LimitationThe study does not represent the experiences of women who do not attend the hospital. However,it may provide information regarding why some women may not wish or be able to attend thehospital facilities.ConclusionImproving the respectful quality of maternity care in Ghana requires improving workers'motivation, strengthening manpower resources and infrastructural development to ensure thatprofessionals can achieve pride in their work. More emphasis should be placed on religion andwomen’s education when discussing countries that are dominated by beliefs and religion. Thefailure to engage with this is likely to mean improvements /initiatives of positive maternity careare likely to fail.Keywords: Quality of maternity care, Intrapartum care, Respectful care, Women experiences,Health facility

SPARC 2017 retrospect & prospects : Salford postgraduate annual research conference book of abstracts

Welcome to the Book of Abstracts for the 2017 SPARC conference. This year we not only celebrate the work of our PGRs but also the 50th anniversary of Salford as a University, which makes this year’s conference extra special. Once again we have received a tremendous contribution from our postgraduate research community; with over 130 presenters, the conference truly showcases a vibrant PGR community at Salford. These abstracts provide a taster of the research strengths of their works, and provide delegates with a reference point for networking and initiating critical debate. With such wide-ranging topics being showcased, we encourage you to exploit this great opportunity to engage with researchers working in different subject areas to your own. To meet global challenges, high impact research inevitably requires interdisciplinary collaboration. This is recognised by all major research funders. Therefore engaging with the work of others and forging collaborations across subject areas is an essential skill for the next generation of researchers