ABSTRACT: The Central Region continuous to report high rates of maternal mortality over the past years despite a moderate decline. The maternal audit committee’s findings attribute maternal deaths to factors including non-adherence to obstetric protocols, delay with respect to obstetric emergencies, and poor use of partograph. The objective of the …
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ABSTRACT: The Central Region continuous to report high rates of maternal mortality over the past years despite a moderate decline. The maternal audit committee’s findings attribute maternal deaths to factors including non-adherence to obstetric protocols, delay with respect to obstetric emergencies, and poor use of partograph. The objective of the study was to assess the utilisation of partograph by midwives in selected facilities in the Cape coast Metropolitan area of the Central Region. A quantitative cross-sectional study was used to collect data from 68 midwives out of total of 78 where a self-administered questionnaires was used. All the midwives from the selected facilities were to be covered which was a census. A retrospective review of completed partograph was conducted on 285 out of expected 320 completed partograph. The Chi-square model was used to assess the key factors influencing partograph utilisation among midwives where the Fisher’s exact correction was used since the sample was small. The results showed that the lowest variable documented on the partograph was age of clients which was 2%, and the highest variable was gravida at 100%. Labour Progression Factors were the most completed at 91% while the least completed was the basic maternal related pre risk factors at 53%. Out of 67 midwives respondents, the average knowledge score was 73%. The results, indicated that among the factors believed to affect the use of partograph, those having a significant association with its use are years of experience Fisher’s exact 0.086 with a, p-value = 0.040 ˂ 0.05 level of significance, and Age with Fisher’s exact value of 0.093 with a p-value = 0.037. There is a need for the experienced midwives to regularly supervise the inexperienced midwives on use of partograph, since years of experience and knowledge were found to associate with use of the partograph.
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