"Daddy Clinics” - Men’s engagement strategy to support their wives in pregnancy

Mamaye  is holding an Advocacy and Communication retreat in Accra, which is running through the week of 15th September 2013. This has given the Mamaye team a great opportunity to visit strategic referral health facilities in Accra like the Tema referral hospital. The Tema Referral Hospital  among other services, provides antenatal services for pregnant women. Pregnant women and those with newborns are entitled to free and immediate healthcare on the NHIS healthcare scheme. This has increased the use of  antenatal  services in the Tema hospital. Some Pregnant women travel over fifteen kilo metres to this hospital to seek medical care.Like in Sierra Leone where five women die every day of pregnancy and child birth related causes , somewhere in Ghana almost 60 women die each week from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Having the Free Health Care services in response to this, the Prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) and antenatal unit among other activities, organizes “Daddy’s clinic every month at the Tema hospital. The purpose of organising  “Daddy’s clinic”is to encourage husbands of the pregnant women to learn more about:

1. The stages in pregnancy
2. Changes that takes place in the body of pregnant women
3. Birth preparedness
4. Moral support to their wives   

I talked with the pregnant women at the PMTCT and antennal  waiting room to get their feedback about the impact  “daddy’s clinic has created in their homes/life. I got few testimonies from three pregnant women that:

1. Their husbands have attended the monthly meeting at least once
2. Husbands are reluctant to attend because of their jobs commitments

What was fascinating most, was to learn about Antoinette Dagbah story, a 25 year old pregnant woman, who lives 15 kilometres from the hospital and  she is carrying a nine month old  pregnancy.Antoinette visits the clinic every month with constant reminders from the husband. She appreciates her husband so much for attending  “Daddy’s clinic” twice and this has changed a lot of situations in her home. She has realised some changes in the way she is being treated by the husband. Talking to Antoinette, she shared that her husband does the cleaning in the home, fetch water before going to his job and helps with cooking in weekends.  Antoinette is a happy woman she feels that other women also such be treated likewise.More men should learn from Antoinette’s story as a way of contributing to maternal survival. in Sierra Leone, Mamaye has engaged "Okada Riders" a men's engagement strategy that encourages men to contribute to improving maternal and new born health.