2. The Problem

Despite the numerous achievements that have taken place over the years, Ghana’s health delivery system still struggles to meet the needs of the citizens of Ghana. Within this system, the public health service plays a very important role in promoting maternal and child health care through the provision of antenatal, postnatal, and child health services. Despite their hard work the World Health Organization estimated that in 2000 Ghana’s maternal mortality ratio to be 540 deaths per 100,000 live births. Currently the public health system in Ghana is inadequately staffed in relation to the sheer workload. Therefore, clients who visit these facilities do not receive the full benefits that such facilities could potentially offer.  Women in greater Accra, Ghana often wait up to 9 hours per day at the antenatal clinic to see a doctor or midwife for approximately three to five minutes.  This does not give them enough time to learn about what is happening to their bodies and what they might expect next from their pregnancy.  Therefore, women and their partners are turning to unqualified or untrained citizens for answers to their questions. The information they receive often contradicts the recommendations that a health professional would give if he or she had the time to adequately counsel clients. This ultimately defeats the original aims and objectives of the Antenatal and Postnatal System and even places mothers at greater risk for complications. The founder of Eve’s Foundation recognized, through her 22 years of professional experience as a nurse midwife and public health nurse, that the severe lack of education women and men received about their reproductive health was adversely affecting their lives and birth outcomes. Eve’s Foundation believes that by ensuring that women and men are properly educated about all facets of their reproductive health, women who experience complications during pregnancy, or while breastfeeding, will seek proper medical care promptly and thereby reducing Ghana’s maternal and infant mortality and morbidity.

 

It is a fundamental human right to have access to health information, education, and counselling.

Reproductive health is affected by multiple confounding factors such as gender, power dynamics, economics, and the customs and traditions by which people live.

Greater awareness of reproductive health is necessary, so that individuals can promote, protect and maintain their own reproductive health and rights.

Prospective parents must have adequate, factual, evidence-based information to equip them in making decisions and choices about their reproductive health and the future of their families.

Male involvement in all matters relating to childbirth is crucial in the reduction of the high maternal and infant morbidity and mortality rates in Ghana.

The myths surrounding childbirth that hinder the proper development of women and children must be combated to keep women, babies, and families healthy.

We honour our client’s beliefs, and try not to impose our beliefs on them.

Parents are primarily responsible for the events of birth; women know their own bodies better thananyone else and should be taught to trust and love their bodies. 

It is the right of parents to give birth where and with whom they choose.