GSS launches 2017 Maternal Health Survey
The Ghana Statistical Services on Thursday launched the 2017 Maternal Health Survey (MHS) at Winneba to determine the level of maternal mortality and causes of maternal deaths in the country.
This year’s survey is the second in series with the first carried out in 2007 and was on the theme: “Safe Motherhood, Reducing Maternal Morbidity and Mortality”.
Launching the survey, Mr Baah Wadieh, the Acting Government Statistician said the survey had been planned within the scope of Millennium Development Goals Acceleration Framework (MAF) operational plan, which was launched in 2010.
Mr Wadieh said the Ghana Statistical Service and Ghana Health Service would implement the survey, which spanned from June to October, this year, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ghana Health Service with Technical Assistance from the Demographic and Health Survey Programme of ICF, USA.
He said the survey, developed by the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service in collaboration with the United Nations Country Team would determine the burden of the maternal mortality and morbidity in the country.
Mr Wadieh said MAF, which formed part of the government’s strategy to reduce maternal mortality had the aim of “enhancing efforts to overcome bottlenecks in the scale-up of the interventions in order to reduce the maternal mortality ratio in Ghana”.
He said the 2017 MHS, funded by the European Union, USAID, MOH and the United Nations Population Fund would help the generation of relevant information for strategic and operational planning of the post-2015 maternal, reproductive and neonatal health programming.
According to him, the survey would also aid the collection of data on women’s perceptions and experience with antennal, maternal and emergency obstetrical care with special emphasis on care received before, during as following the termination of a pregnancy.
Mr Wadieh said: “The Survey will collect information from a nationally-representative sample of households and women of the reproductive age of 15-49 years”.
He said the survey would measure indicators related to the utilisation of maternal health services with special emphasis on post-abortion care services in Ghana.
Mr Wadieh said the questionnaire to be administered had been translated into Akan, Ewe and Ga languages to facilitate easy data collection by interviewers.
He said verbal autopsy would be conducted in all households where death of women between ages 10-52 years was recorded in five years before the survey.
Mr Wadieh called on all stakeholders to corporate with the filed interviewers to help them in generating the data to assist in the reduction of maternal morbidity and mortality nationwide.
Source: GNA