BackgroundDocumentary evidence points to high unmet need for family planning across sub-Saharan Africa. Modern contraceptive use has been staggering over decades with unacceptable marginal increases given that one in three women still report unmet need in Ghana. This study sought to re-examine through a further analysis on the prevalence and determinants of unmet need for family planning in Ghana using married women extracted from the recent 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey.MethodData was analyzed using univariate, bivariate, logistic and multinomial logistic regression models.ResultsOf the 4527 women, more than a third (35.17%) experienced unmet need of which 20.19% had unmet need for spacing while 14.98% reported unmet need for limiting. The logistic results showed that older aged women, being employed and women with higher ideal number of children were less likely to experience unmet need. However, women who did not know the couples’ preferred number of children, women who had more than one union and those with higher number of living biological children were more likely to report unmet need. From the multinomial model, an increase in age, residing in a rural area, and being employed were associated with lower risk of unmet need for spacing. Additionally, Women who did not know the couples’ ideal number of children, women who had higher age when they got married, and women with higher number of biological children were more likely to report unmet need for spacing. Women who had a higher number of ideal children, women who had secondary or higher education, women from higher socio-economic households, were less likely to report unmet need for limiting. .ConclusionsWe recommend the strengthening of contraception services in order to address the various age specific needs and women within the different socio-demographic sects so as to reduce unmet need. Addressing the needs of women with increasing number of living biological children is equally paramount.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s40834-018-0083-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background: Maternal mortality remains a significant public health challenge in many low and middle-income countries, including Ghana. From Ghana's 2017 Maternal Health Survey verbal autopsy data, we examined the predictors of maternal mortality in Ghana. Methods: A total of 1240 deaths of women aged 15-49 were involved in the survey across all regions in Ghana. Binary and multivariate logistic regression analyses were employed; confidence level was set at 95%. Results: The results show that the prevalence of maternal death was 13.2% (164/1240). After adjusting for potential covariates, women aged 20-29 years (aOR = 4.270, 95%CI= 1.864-9.781, p=0.001), bled during labour/delivery (aOR= 0.241, 95%CI = 0.059-0.992, p=0.049), and those who used traditional/herbal medicines during pregnancy were more likely to die compared to non-users (aOR= 3.461, 95% CI = 1.651-7.258, p=0.001). Conclusion: Our findings highlight the need to intensify maternal education regarding the value to be gained by increasing skilled healthcare during complications in pregnancy to allow effective management of complications during labour/delivery. Also, education for pregnant women and their families on possible adverse effects of using unapproved traditional/herbal medicines during pregnancy as well as a need to seek timely care before the onset of labour

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Promoting antenatal care (ANC) utilization is one of the key drivers of the Safe Motherhood Initiative aimed at improving maternal health in low-income countries. The study sought to examine the effects of health insurance coverage and socioeconomic status of women on antenatal care utilization in Ghana. The study used cross-sectional data from the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS). Negative binomial and binary logistic regression models were applied. The results showed that women covered with national health insurance were more likely to have more antenatal care visits and adequate and timely antenatal care. The results showed that having an advanced age, attaining secondary or higher-level education, being employed, being in the richest wealth quintile, and having an active national health insurance subscription during pregnancy significantly predicted ANC utilization. The study suggests that if interventions aimed at reducing the burden of prenatal care are not implemented, coupled with women’s economic empowerment to cater to the cost of prenatal care, the benefits of the ANC associated with early and adequate ANC services may not optimally be achieved. That aside, ANC services in Ghana are technically ‘free’ through the user-fee exemption policy under the NHIS. However, socioeconomic factors still largely determine women’s decisions to utilize maternal health services.

In this paper, we argue that fertility is among the key components in the demographic transition process of many global economies. The study used the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey. We applied the conventional neo-classical consumer-theoretic approach to model the demand of children. The study aimed to estimate the demographic effects on fertility among women of reproductive age 15-49 in Ghana using the negative binomial regression. The results indicated that the age of women at first births, mother’s years of education, number of unions, wealth level, women occupations, Partners occupation, contraceptive use and intention, marital status, are significant and negatively associated with the number of children ever born. However, current age of the woman, fertility preference, decision maker on contraceptive use, child sex, number of living children and experienced of the death of a son and/or daughter resulting from replacement effect and hoarding effects and residing in rural areas have positively and significantly influence fertility in Ghana. We recorded variations in the effects of some variables in total, urban and rural samples. We conclude that reduction in child mortality, increasing women access of formal education, increasing women power in decision making on contraceptive use, increasing access to and use of contraceptives as well as reducing income disparity between urban and rural population by providing employment opportunities in rural areas are keys policy issues that could help achieve fertility reduction in Ghana.