History of Midwifery In Ghana

Compiled By Rosemary Obuamah, Ruth Agyemang, Joyce Kalinge, students of Oak City International College in 2018

INTRODUCTION

Midwifery can trace its early historical perspective from the bible, before the advent of modern obstetrics. The word “midwifery” is derived from middle English “midwyf” meaning with woman that is a woman assisting a mother at birth. In the subsequent year’s midwifery has become a profession that is practiced by all, irrespective of one’s gender.

Expatiating the word midwifery, it is a health care profession in which expertise in the field of maternal health care, provide supervision for pregnant women from the moment she conceived, monitoring the growth of the fetus, the woman going into labor and the delivery of the baby. A person who branches into this line of work is called a Midwife.

A midwife as defined by the International Confederation of Midwives is a person who has been proficiently coached in the midwifery education program which is acknowledge in the practitioner’s specific country who has the requisite qualification and the legal license to practice midwifery. The code of practice varies from country to country.

HISTORY OF MIDWIFERY IN GHANA

The role of the midwifery in the health care delivery system in Ghana was founded as far back as 1917 over concerns of infants wellbeing (Ofosu- Amaah 1981). Concerned about the high mortality among infants, the government at the time set up a committee to investigate the courses.

The committee’s reports revealed that poor midwifery practice and particularly inadequate postnatal care to both mother and infant were the main causes of high infant mortality rate. The committee recommended that the government should open maternity hospitals and train midwives to attend to mothers and their babies.

Consequently, in 1927 the government selected two districts in the capital city of Accra to start domiciliary midwifery in Ghana. Two African midwives trained in England were employed to work there. These midwives were encouraging to work with and given practical demonstration to traditional midwives to improve their skills.

A year later, the Korle Bu Maternity hospital opened in Accra to provide professional midwifery care and training. This hospital remains the main teaching hospital and reference center in Ghana to this day. In 1930, the first batch of the locally trained midwives graduated. In 1931, legislation for the training, examination, registration and practice of midwifery was promulgated. In 1932, the first midwife ordinance was passed and the Central Midwives Board Constituted. All midwives who graduated from 1930 were thus formally issues their certificates of registration.

Initially, there were two categories of nurses who were trained as midwives – the Qualified Registered Nurse (QRN) and the State Registered Nurse (SRN). The period of midwifery training for both was 18 months. Later, the period of training for the SRN was reduced to 12 months. This was when 3 months of midwifery training was introduced into the SRN curriculum. The QRN continued to train in midwifery for 18months but this training was phased out in 1970. (Source: Midwifery: Freedom to practice? An International exploration of midwifery practice)

There are presently three categories of midwifery training programmes in Ghana. A two-year post basic Enrolled/Community Health Nursing Programmme after which candidates are awarded certificates to practice as midwives. The direct midwifery (Diploma) programme is a three-year programme designed for senior secondary or high school graduates. There is also a direct 4-year degree programme where students are awarded with a Bachelor’s degree in midwifery.