Promoting male participation in maternal healthcare in the Jaman North District in Ghana: Strategies and implementation challenges

Emmanuel Kofi Gyan, Gordon Dugle and Gilbert Abotisem Abiiro

International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 2022, vol. 37, issue 3, 1754-1768

Abstract: Promoting male participation in maternal healthcare is essential for improved maternal health outcomes. This study explored existing strategies to promote male participation in maternal healthcare and assessed their implementation challenges within healthcare facilities in the Jaman North District in Ghana. A qualitative approach was implemented in April 2020. Interviews were administered to a stratified purposive sample of 18 respondents comprising six midwives and 12 male partners of postnatal mothers. All interviews were audio‐recorded, transcribed, and manually analysed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed early service, male partner invitation, male partner incentivisation, public sensitization, and male informed education, as strategies to promote male participation in the district. The implementation of these strategies has been constrained by socio‐cultural and health system factors, namely, perception of pregnancy as non‐illness, perceived experiences gained by women during previous births, cultural stereotypes, unconducive environment of healthcare facilities, inappropriate timing of facility attendance and unexpected costs associated with male participation. Promoting male participation, therefore, requires dedicated policy attention to the existing socio‐cultural and health system constraints. The Ghana Health Service and other stakeholders should consider both community‐level and targeted sensitization on the benefits of male participation in maternal healthcare and a general improvement in maternal healthcare infrastructure.

Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/hpm.3441

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:ijhplm:v:37:y:2022:i:3:p:1754-1768

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0749-6753

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Health Planning and Management is currently edited by Calum Paton

More articles in International Journal of Health Planning and Management from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().