Midwives Deliver

This video Midwives Deliver shows you a typical day as a midwife, the governmental position on midwifery, and the midwifery schools. Midwives in Ghana are trying to accomplish the MDG 5; calls for a 75% decrease in the maternal mortality rate from 1975-2015. Throughout Ghana the changes in healthcare are evident.
A lot of the video deals with one Midwife in particular, Hajia Mary Issaka. She was trained at the Bolgatanga Midwifery School. She goes to different cities and assesses why women are not going into the clinics despite the fact that delivery is free. She has made a great improvement by meeting with opinion leaders at a durbar. A durbar is a gathering that brings together a community members and opinion leaders to discuss issues in the community. In Ghana I would love to be a part of a durbar and get a better feel for the community around me. Something brought up during a durbar is if you deliver at home you are brave, and you are also faithful to your husband. They also believe if you are destined to die there is nothing that can prevent you from dying. For me, this is a very hard belief to grasp. In America delivering at home is not the traditional way and is sometimes looked upon as strange and unsafe. Through my research in the field I hope to better understand why women would decide not to go to a clinic and deliver at home.