TY - JOUR T1 - Reaching out to a community to improve maternal health in Ghana: the story of one midwife JF - Global Health: Science and Practice JO - GLOB HEALTH SCI PRACT SP - 366 LP - 369 DO - 10.9745/GHSP-D-14-00110 VL - 2 IS - 3 AU - John Kuumuori Ganle Y1 - 2014/08/01 UR - http://www.ghspjournal.org/content/2/3/366.abstract N2 - The story below of a Ghanaian midwife from the Ashanti region illustrates how one person was able to mobilize local community members in rural Piase in the Bosomtwi district to create demand for, and improve access to and use of, emergency and routine maternal health services. Her story demonstrates how involving communities in maternal health issues can improve both access to services and maternal health outcomes.“When I was first posted to Piase in 2005 as a midwife, attendance at antenatal care (ANC) clinics was very low. Women were also delivering their babies at home. So I became very worried. I was particularly worried because maternal and newborn care services were provided free-of-charge at the health facility. I therefore started asking a lot of questions regarding why the women were not using our services.I discovered that the women were not coming because of certain things that were happening in the community. For example, I found out that they [the women] were using the services of TBAs [traditional birth attendants], and these TBAs were actively discouraging the women from coming to the health facility to receive skilled care. The surprising thing I also found was that some religious leaders, I mean pastors, were discouraging their congregants from using health facility services [and instead encouraging them to find relief] through prayers and spiritual healing.I was indeed very worried, and this was so because the midwife who came to the community before I did had a very bad relationship with the TBAs, religious leaders, and some traditional or opinion leaders in the community. The stories I have heard are that the community members complained that my predecessor showed gross disrespect for the culture and traditional authority structures of the community. In addition, I was told the midwife had several confrontations with … ER -