Contextualising Women Decision Making during Delivery: Socio -Cultural Determinant of Choice of Delivery Sites in Ghana

摘要

The welfare of women and children continue to be at the forefront of national and global millennium health policies. Though these programs and initiatives have been put into place, maternal mortality is still a challenge in many developing countries including Ghana. In many rural communities across the country, quite a number of deliveries still take place at home without skilled supervision. This paper sought to establish sociocultural impediments to the use of health facility as the most ideal place of delivery among a cross section of women in the northern part of Ghana. Using a purposive sampling method, a total of 120 nursing mothers were interviewed. The results suggest a positive relationship between increasing maternal formal education, household income and possibility of delivering at a health facility. However, social and cultural factors have been noted to exert a greater impact on the choice of delivery sites. In view of this, the paper suggests a modification of traditional practices to suite current happening. In addition to the above, there is also the need for deployment of resources needed to combat home delivery, or even if at, make it safer.