How intra-familial decision-making affects women’s access to, and use of maternal healthcare services in Ghana: a qualitative study

John Kuumuori Ganle1, Bernard Obeng2, Alexander Yao Segbefia3, Vitalis Mwinyuri3, Joseph Yaw Yeboah3 and Leonard Baatiema3

Background

There is some evidence to suggest that within the household, family and community settings, women in sub-Saharan Africa often have limited autonomy and control over their reproductive health decisions. However, there are few studies that examine how intra-familial decision-making power may affect women’s ability to access and use maternal health services. The purpose of this paper is to examine how intra-familial decision-making affects women’s ability to access and use maternal health services.

Methods

We conducted 12 focus group discussions and 81 individual interviews with a total of 185 expectant and lactating mothers in six communities in Ghana. In addition, 20 key informant interviews were completed with healthcare providers. Attride-Stirling’s thematic network analysis framework was used to analyse the data.

Results

Findings suggest that decision-making regarding access to and use of skilled maternal healthcare services is strongly influenced by the values and opinions of husbands, mothers-in-law, traditional birth attendants and other family and community members, more than those of individual childbearing women. In 49.2 %, 16.2 %, and 12.4 % of cases in which women said they were unable to access maternal health services during their last pregnancy, husbands, mothers-in-law, and husband plus mothers-in-law, respectively, made the decision. Women themselves were the final decision-makers in only 2.7 % of the cases. The findings highlight how the goal of improving access to maternal healthcare services can be undermined by women’s lack of decision-making autonomy through complex processes of gender inequality, economic marginalisation, communal decision-making and social power.

Conclusion

Interventions to improve women’s use of maternity services should move beyond individual women to target different stakeholders at multiple levels, including husbands and mothers-in-law.

BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth 2015, 15:173  doi:10.1186/s12884-015-0590-4