The Emerging Midwifery Crisis in Ghana: Mapping of Midwives and Service Availability Highlights Gaps in Maternal Care POLICY, Michelle Prosser, Emily Sonneveldt, Margaret Hamilton, Elaine Menotti, and Penney Davis (June 2006)  Full Document (English)      Order for free      email to me  This report presents information regarding practicing midwives’ skill sets, scopes and protocols of practice, and referral systems to identify gaps in access and service delivery, legal and operational barriers to practice, and geographical disparities in coverage. These data provide important direction for policymakers to increase the ability of Ghanaian women to access comprehensive services and strengthen midwives’ ability to provide those services. Midwives are important providers of reproductive healthcare in Ghana. There are more than 3,379 midwives in Ghana compared with fewer than 2,000 physicians. While midwives practice throughout the country, physicians tend to be clustered in large cities. As a result, midwives provide the majority of antenatal, delivery, and newborn and postpartum care, including emergency obstetric care, especially in rural areas. Further, midwives provide family planning services, postabortion care, treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), nutrition and breastfeeding counseling, and child health services. The purpose of the Midwife Mapping Project was to assess the accessibility to comprehensive reproductive healthcare, including routine and emergency obstetric care, as provided by midwives, as well as to learn about midwives’ experiences in service provision throughout Ghana. The study included three complementary research methodologies: • Policy environment analysis • Survey of practicing midwives and geospatial mapping • Focus group discussions (FGDs) with practicing and non-practicing midwives