Upper West Region implements project for expectant mothers
A pilot project to improve maternal and child health care, known as Community Benefits Health (CBH), is being implemented in the Upper West Region.
Advertisement
Under the project, the communities are provided with incentives to encourage them to support women seeking skilled health care during pregnancy and childbirth.
According to Mrs Dela Kokroko Gle, the Senior Programmes Manager for the CBH project, “The project’s goal is to change the behaviour of communities to encourage pregnant mothers and their newborns to access the needed health care, to survive and thrive.”
“This includes reaching out not just to individual women, but key decision makers such as husbands and mothers-in-law, and influential people in the community, such as village elders,” she said.
Background
The CBH is one of the five projects underway in Ghana, Sierra Leone and Kenya by Concern Worldwide, a United States of America (USA)-based organisation, under its programme, Innovations for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, dubbed “Innovations”.
According to Mrs Gle, in Ghana, the project was being implemented in 34 communities in three districts, namely Lambussie, Wa West and Jirapa, by Pronet North, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Wa.
The overall goal of the CBH project, supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is to make improved maternal health care a social norm, promoted and supported by all individuals in a community.
Local participation
According to her, the villages spread health messages about pregnancy, childbirth and newborns through community durbars, dramas, videos, radio programmes, posters and peer educators, pointing out that chiefs, opinion leaders and husbands are encouraged to regularly attend educational meetings about quality health care for an expectant mother, accessing skilled delivery and postnatal care; ensuring that pregnant women take nutritious food and the need for husbands to assist their expectant wives with household chores.
Other Trending Stories
“A pregnant woman may want or need to go to a health facility but if her husband or village elders discourage her then she may not receive antenatal care and may eventually deliver without supervision from a skilled attendant. “This poses challenges to the health of a woman and her baby,” Mrs Gle said.
To help reach the goal, she said the project offered an incentive, such as the construction of a borehole to benefit the entire community, pointing out that the project motivated commitment and behavioural change among members of the whole community.
Aims of CBH project
Specifically, the CBH programme aims at increasing the number of women who seek the maximum antenatal visits beginning in the early period of pregnancy, enhancing skilled delivery and a post-delivery health check for mother and their babies.
In addition, it encourages women to start breastfeeding as soon as their baby is born and to continue breastfeeding exclusively for at least six months.