Family Planning Needs of Women Experiencing Severe Maternal Morbidity in Accra, Ghana: Another Missed Opportunity?

Abstract

Women with severe maternal morbidity represent an important group to target for increasing contraceptive uptake. Our objective was to explore the future fertility intentions, use of family planning including methods and reasons for not wanting to use contraception among a group of women who had traumatic delivery experience at a tertiary teaching hospital in Accra, Ghana. Our results show that despite higher educational attainment, longer hospital stays and intention to limit or stop childbearing among women, there is a missed opportunity for family planning among women with  severe maternal morbidity in this urban African hospital setting. Integrating postpartum family planning consultations by linking available services such as reproductive health clinics at the facilities rather than including  additional tasks for the midwives and the doctors in the wards could be a sustainable solution in such urban, high-volume settings.

Keywords: near miss, maternal morbidity, family planning, postpartum contraception, Africa, integration, facility delivery