Abstract
BackgroundThere has been a growing realisation of the need to enhance men’s inclusion in maternal and safe motherhood services, especially in low-income settings. However, empirical studies on the extent to which men are involved in maternal and safe motherhood services especially in poor inner-city communities are lacking. The purpose of this study was to describe the level of men’s inclusion in maternal and safe-motherhood services in inner-city communities in Ghana, and to assess the barriers of men’s involvement.MethodsA descriptive cross-sectional quantitative survey was conducted among a total of 256 randomly selected adult men in Chorkor, an inner-city fishing community in Accra, the capital city of Ghana. A multistage sampling strategy was used to select houses, households and respondents. Descriptive statistical techniques were used to analyse the data. Data analysis was done with the aid of SPSS version 20.ResultsAlthough almost all (96.6%) respondents knew the meaning of family planning, as high as 236(92.2%) have never accompanied their wives/partners to clinics to seek family planning services. Also 242(94.5%) and 251(98%) of men, respectively, knew the importance of antenatal services and supervised delivery. However, only 114(44.5%) of men ever accompanied their wives/partners to seek skilled delivery services. Men’s involvement was hindered by barriers such as attitude of health workers, long waiting time and socio-cultural beliefs.ConclusionThe study revealed a gap between men’s awareness of the importance of maternal and safe motherhood services and their actual involvement in accessing these services with their female partners. There is a need to create a supportive environment that encourages men to be involved in maternal health services to help reduce maternal/neonatal morbidity and mortality.
Highlights
There has been a growing realisation of the need to enhance men’s inclusion in maternal and safe motherhood services, especially in low-income settings
We defined men’s inclusion in maternal and safe motherhood services to include their involvement in family planning, antenatal care (ANC) visits and supervised delivery
It has been recognised that though maternal and newborn survival requires improvements in basic and comprehensive obstetric care coverage and quality, inclusion of men in maternal and safe motherhood services is required to increase the use of these services, eliminate delays in accessing care, and promote timely referral when problems arise [2,3,4]
Summary
There has been a growing realisation of the need to enhance men’s inclusion in maternal and safe motherhood services, especially in low-income settings. The purpose of this study was to describe the level of men’s inclusion in maternal and safe-motherhood services in inner-city communities in Ghana, and to assess the barriers of men’s involvement. The inclusion of men in maternal and safe motherhood services is increasingly recognised as an important determinant of women’s access to needed care in many lowincome settings, including Ghana [1,2,3,4,5]. We defined men’s inclusion in maternal and safe motherhood services to include their involvement in family planning, ANC visits and supervised delivery. In some parts of the world, it has been noted that husband’s approval is an important determinant of access and use of maternal and safe motherhood services [10, 11]
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