Promoting maternal and child health outcomes through patronage of family planning services: Evidence from Ghanaian rural women of fertility age

Introduction: Family planning services (FPS) are widely acknowledged as an important intervention to reduce maternal and child mortality. Patronising family planning services has gone up over the past few years in Ghana. However, patronage of the service still remains low to attain the target set by the country’s Ministry of Health and global partners by 2030. Therefore, this study assessed the promotion of maternal and child health (MCH) outcomes through the patronage of FPS among rural women of fertility age (WiFA) at Sunyani West Municipality, Ghana.

Methods: The study was a retrospective cross-sectional study conducted among rural WiFA. A multistage sampling technique was used to recruit a sample of 413 participants. Descriptive statistics and related Pearson bivariate correlation and linear multiple regression were deployed in making meanings from the data collected at a significance level of 0.05.

Results: Results indicated that of all the FPS, it was contraceptive services (94.9%) and pregnancy testing and counseling (80.1%) that were frequently available. A larger number (71.0%) of respondents preferred taking FPS at the pharmacy/chemical shops, indicating a positive high correlation between pharmacy/drug shop and availability of FPS (.81). In the study, respondents have several perceived benefits of FPS on MCH outcomes; however, the most perceived benefits were the prevention of unwanted pregnancies (86.4%) and maternal and child mortality (84.5%). The multiple linear regression analysis established that cultural factors were significant predictors of patronage of FPS [F (9, 404) = 11.160, p = 0.000], explaining the variability of FPS (R2 = 0.741).

Conclusion: Family planning services could be an effective way of ensuring better MCH outcomes. Commitment via ensuring the availability of FPS, its accessibility at effective outlets, and efforts towards removing cultural barriers and education could enhance its successful implementation in Ghana and close geopolitical region.