Fears associated with maternal death: Selected midwives’ lived experiences in the Ashanti Region of Ghana

Abstract

Like the fear associated with the demise of loved ones, maternal deaths at any health facility equally illicit fear among midwives. This jeopardises their ability to achieve the quality of work expected of them. There is a depth of literature on midwives and fear associated with maternal death. Therefore, this paper seeks to explore the lived experiences of midwives who, in the discharge of their professional duties, have come face-to-face with maternal death in selected hospitals of Ashanti region in Ghana. The study applies a qualitative research paradigm and exploratory descriptive design in the overall collection and analysis of data. Purposive sampling was used to select 57 participants (18 supervisors and 39 ward midwives). The data was collected through semistructured interviews and focus group discussions, and managed by computer data analysis package (Atlas ti version 7.1.7). Content analysis was employed to analyse the data. Six themes emerged from the analysed data, namely fear of death, recurrence of death, fear of the Maternal Death Review (MDR) Process, fear of deceased family members’ reactions, fear of stigma from community members and fear of lawsuit/withdrawal of license. The study established that fear experienced by midwives as a result of maternal death may affect their quality of work life and the quality of services provided to patients under their care. It is therefore recommended that, all health facilities in the Ashanti Region should institute support programmes to assist midwives cope with challenges associated with death of patients