An Assessment of the Effect of the Free Maternal Care Policy on the Utilisation of Maternal Care Services in the New Juaben Municipality
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Date
2011-06-20
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Abstract
This is a descriptive survey study carried out to assess the effect of the free maternal care policy on utilisation of care services in the New Juaben municipality. There have been little studies carried out to evaluate the effect of this policy on the access to and utilization of health care facilities, maternal health and deaths. This study was carried out to investigate into this policy. The main objective of the study was to verify the effect of the free maternal care policy on the utilisation of maternal care services in the New Juaben Municipality. The population for the study encompassed women of child bearing age (10-49) in the New Juaben Municipality. Both primary and secondary sources of data were employed for this study. The purposive and accidental sampling procedures were used to select the respondents. The sample size is six hundred (600). This study used trend analysis as its main approach of analysing the available data. The findings show a slight decline in maternal mortality as compared with the number of death in 2007. The finding also shows that antenatal attendance has been increasing over the years. This is attributed to the introduction of the free maternal healthcare policy. However, quality of care still remains a problem due to the enormous attendance. Findings show that there is still a great need to introduce other measures to reduce maternal mortality in the municipality. It was recommended that quality of care must be addressed to improve maternal health survival and steady and secure funding must be in place to ensure that the policy is sustainable, so that the policy can be strengthened.
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A Thesis submitted to the Institute of Distance Learning, Kwame
Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of
Commonwealth Executive Masters of Business
Administration, June, 2011