Baah Wadieh (middle) presenting the preliminary findings Baah Wadieh (middle) presenting the preliminary findings Baah Wadieh (middle) presenting the preliminary findings Baah Wadieh (middle) presenting the preliminary findings Baah Wadieh (middle) presenting the preliminary findings Baah Wadieh (middle) presenting the preliminary findings Baah Wadieh (middle) presenting the preliminary findings Baah Wadieh (middle) presenting the preliminary findings Baah Wadieh (middle) presenting the preliminary findings
The preliminary report of the Ghana Maternal Health Survey (GMHS) has shown a marginal drop in fertility rate among Ghanaian women from 4.6 children per woman in 2007 to 3.9 in 2017.
The survey conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) from June 15 through October 12, 2017 reportedly collected data from a nationally representative sample of more 25,000 women age 15-49.
According to the preliminary findings which were released by Acting Statistician Baah Wadieh to journalists on Wednesday in Accra, rural women had a higher fertility rate of 4.7 children, compared with 3.3 children for the urban counterparts.
The main aim of the 2017 GMHS was accordingly to determine the burden of maternal mortality and morbidity at the national and three zonal levels, namely coastal, middle and northern, taking into consideration urban and rural areas within the zones.
It was also 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 following the termination or abortion of a pregnancy.
According to the report, there have been some gains in maternal health in Ghana.
“Nearly 8 in 10 (79%) deliveries occur in a health facility, an increase from 54% in the 2007 Ghana Maternal Health Survey,” the findings revealed.
It said, “At the time of the survey, 14% of adolescent women age 15-19 had begun childbearing: 12% had already had a live birth and 3% were pregnant with their first child.”
Family Planning
With respect to the rate of family planning among Ghanaian women, the report indicates that about three in 10 representing 31 percent currently married women age 15-49 in Ghana “use any method of contraception, and 1 in 4 (25%) uses a modern method of contraception.”
“Injectables (8%), implants (7%), and pills (4%) are the most commonly used modern methods,” it added.
Surprisingly, the report revealed that “urban women are slightly less likely than their rural counterparts to use a modern method of contraception (23% versus 27%).
The use of modern contraceptive methods, it mentioned, ranges from a low of 17 percent in Northern Region to a high of 32 percent in Upper East Region.
“Women with primary (29%) or middle school (27%) education are more likely than women with no (22%) or secondary (21%) or more than secondary (22%) education to use a modern method, and women in the second and middle wealth quintiles (29% each) are more likely than women in the lowest (23%) or fourth (24%) or highest (21%) wealth quintile to use a modern method, ” it added.
Mortality Rate
According to the report, infant and under-five mortality rates in the five-year period preceding the survey “are 37 and 52 deaths per 1,000 live births respectively.”
Again, it revealed, “In the five years proceedings the 2017 GMHS, 76% of pregnancies resulted in a live birth, 2% ended in a stillbirth, 12% ended in a miscarriage, and 10% ended in an abortion.”
Strangely, the report pointed out that “rural women have more live births than urban women, whereas women in the urban areas have more miscarriages and abortions than their rural counterparts.”
Meanwhile, Mr Wadieh has told the media that the detailed findings of the survey will be released in June 2018.
BY Melvin Tarlue