Overview
Information on oral intake during labour, or intrapartum care practices in general is scarce to non-existent across Sub-Saharan Africa and other low-to-middle-income regions. In Ghana, the National Reproductive Health Service Policy and Standards (2014) outlined the primary objective of care during labour, which is to ensure safe delivery of the newborn; with a specific objective being to minimize stress for the mother and baby during delivery. In theory, this process should be guided by the use of evidence-based labour and birth practices, respect for women’s labour, as well as the maintenance of a woman’s dignity, confidentiality and privacy. The aim of this study is to assess current intrapartum nutrition practices and experiences in Ghana, to understand the extent to which public health practices reflect the WHO recommendations, as well as the preferences and experiences shared among postpartum women and their family support network.
An assessment of the intrapartum nutrition was conducted by Agresearch Lead consult in the Greater Accra region. This project was implemented by JHPIEGO and Momentum Country and Global Leadership (MCGL). The assessment targeted 5 health facilities purposively selected (i.e. Korle-bu Teaching Hospital, Greater Accra Regional Hospital, Achimota Hospital, Ga West Municipal hospital and Tema General Hospital). This assessment had interviews conducted for KAP (12), Client (56) and Family and friends (44).
Project details
Duration: May, 2022 – September, 2022.
Location: Greater Accra region of Ghana
Technical Approach
To address the proposed research questions, a mixed-methods approach was adopted for this study. A mixed methods study combines quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis in one study. The purpose of this approach was to investigate the study objectives by generating in-depth findings from study participants.
Study population
Data was collected from 135 participants in five purposely-selected health facilities in the Greater Accra region. Participants included facility and ward managers, maternity health providers, birthing women, and their family/friend support network. A breakdown of participants and data collected is found in Table 1
Breakdown of participants and data collection
|
Data Collection tool |
Participants |
|
Client Survey |
56 In-client Postpartum Women |
|
a) Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Survey b) In-Depth Interview Questionnaire |
12 Health Providers |
|
Participant Survey |
44 Family/Friends of Postpartum Women |
|
Key Informant Interview |
11 District Health Officer & Facility Quality Improvement Staff |
|
Total |
123 participants |
Tasks carried out:
The activities the team carried out were;
- Organized inception meeting with partners to discuss technical approach.
- Reviewed quantitative and qualitative instruments.
- Programmed of questionnaires using Kobo collect.
- Human resource and logistics arrangement for training and data collection.
- Trained field team members on survey instruments and protocols.
- Data collection (Quantitative and Qualitative) in the selected health facilities.
- Data collation, cleaning and analysis.
- Prepared draft, reviewed comments from stakeholders and submitted final evaluation report.
- Prepared PowerPoint presentation slides for stakeholder validation.
- Presented the findings to respective stakeholders.