Childbirth in Ghana is often seen as a joyous occasion in Ghanaian society, as children represent wealth, status, and the continuation of a lineage. Pregnant women are often given special privileges and are considered to be beautiful, fragile, and vulnerable to evil spirits. Therefore, women may seek guidance from a religious or spiritual diviner to protect their fetus or to increase their chances of conceiving. For example, the Akan may carry akuaba dolls, a fertility symbol, during pregnancy to ensure that they will birth a healthy and beautiful baby that resembles the doll's exaggerated features.
Infertility
Due to the cultural implications and the importance of bearing children, infertility in Ghana can be devastating. Throughout the years, Ghanaians have believed that both physical and spiritual ailments are the cause of infertility. Some people believe that a womb could be too hot or too cold to support a developing baby. Others believe that the cause of their infertility is witchcraft, and this belief is often supported by traditional priests who assert that the woman can be rid of a witch's curse and be allowed to conceive if the priest performs a rite in which he asks fertility gods how they can be appeased.
Other spiritual beliefs involving infertility include the belief that infertility is the result of a woman's disobedience to God, in which the remedy is prayer and repentance. Women who consult a tradition birth attendant are likely to be told that prayer is the medicine for infertility, although they acknowledge that infertility is sometimes caused by a physical ailment. In these cases, the traditional birth attendant may blame the infertility on stomach aches and advise the woman to visit a hospital and take the medicine given by the doctor.
Prenatal care
Cultural influences and sociodemographic characteristics play an important role in a woman's decision to seek maternal-child health services. These influences and characteristics include level of education, religious affiliation, region of residence, ethnicity, and occupation. In most communities, maternal-child health services coexist with traditional indigenous health care, and pregnant women in these rural areas may choose between modern medicine, herbalists, diviners, and spiritualists for care. The use of a doctor for prenatal care is low among women living in rural areas of Greater Accra and the Northern and Upper regions of Ghana. 23.1% of Protestant and Catholic women, and 10.3% of traditional women consult a doctor for prenatal care.
The majority of women believe that antenatal care from a health professional is necessary to determine that their pregnancy is normal, to see that the fetus is well-positioned, to learn about when they were expected to deliver, to obtain a tetanus immunization, for the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses during pregnancy, and nutritional advice. The barriers to seeking antenatal care include travel time and distance from health care facilities, the high cost, and the inconvenient hours of operations of the clinics. Some women also did not want people to know they were pregnant until their third month of pregnancy, and would wait until then to seek antenatal care. Inexpensive care from traditional birth attendants included routine antenatal care, however untrained attendants and traditional healers did not provide antenatal care.
Pregnancy food beliefs and practices
Knowledge about nutrition in Ghana is obtained through formal education, community health services, friends and families, cultural practices, traditions, and beliefs of the community. The majority of foods consumed by Ghanaian women during pregnancy were foods indigenous to Ghanaian diets in general such as green leafy vegetables, meats, fish, fruits, and legumes. They also consume foreign foods such as dairy products, biscuits, and beverages such as tea and powdered mixes.
Recommended raw foods during pregnancy include: bananas, oranges, papaya, pineapples, carrots, cabbage, lettuce, honey, and other vegetables. Recommended cooked foods include bean stew with palm oil and boiled white rice, bread, fried anchovies, smoked mackerel, snails in soup, stews with eggs and vegetables, palm nut soup with fufu and rice, and Nkontomire stew which is made with palm oil and boiled sweet cassava, or plantain, or yam. The beliefs about beneficial foods during pregnancy are based on their understanding of how certain foods can prevent anemia, enhance physical strength, support the development of the fetus, and minimize physiological disruption.