Community education efforts enhance postabortion care program in Ghana

As in most countries in the developing world unsafe abortion devastates the health and lives of women in Ghana. It is the highest single contributor to its maternal mortality ratio of 740 deaths per 100000 live births. Although complications of abortion are treatable delays in prompt treatment increase the risk of morbidity and death. To address the problem of unsafe abortion and delays in seeking care for women a comprehensive operations research project aimed at improving womens access to postabortion services was implemented in Ghana. Community education was an integral component of the postabortion care project implemented under the US Agency for International Developments MotherCare contract. The experiences and lessons that were learned from incorporating community education into the program are presented in the paper. Through this strategy women men adolescents community leaders and the community at large were made aware of the risks and signs of unsafe abortions and its complications and the availability of services by trained midwives. This approach in being both strategic and sustainable directly complements the national Safe Motherhood health education program of Ghana and could be easily integrated into other reproductive health programs in various settings.