Journal of Medicine, Physiology and Biophysics www.iiste.org ISSN 2422-8427 An International Peer-reviewed Journal Vol.28, 2016 18 Contribution of Community Based Health Planning Service in Maternal Health Service Delivery in the Tamale Metropolitan Area, Ghana. Mavis. M. Begohn, Dina Adei and Isabella. S. Mireku. Department of Planning, College of Art and Built Environment, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana Abstract The fast approach of the end of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the end of 2015 has driven many countries to accelerate their efforts at achieving the goals. In line with the proposed means of measuring the success of the MDG 5 by World Health Organisation (WHO): to reduce country maternal mortality ratios and achieve universal reproductive health, Ghana has been implementing the Community based Health Planning Services (CHPS) strategy to address the MDG 4 and 5. This study sought to assess the contribution of the CHPS to the attainment of the MDG5 using the indicators of antenatal care, delivery services, postnatal care and community participation components of CHPS. Adopting qualitative and quantitative study approach and the cross sectional research design, the Tamale Metropolitan Area (TaMA) was brought into focus to have a snap shot view on the contribution of CHPS to maternal health. Three hundred and ninety five women of child bearing age (15-49 years), 31 Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and six health professionals in the CHPS zones provided information for the study through questionnaire administration, focused group discussions and interviews respectively. The results revealed that, 80.8percent of the women attended antenatal clinic in their respective CHPS compound. All the CHPS in the study did not provide delivery services for the women due to lack of midwives. Further, 89 percent of the women were delivered by TBAs at home whilst the rest delivered in either a health centre or hospital because of complications in pregnancy. All respondents received the first 24 hours postnatal care from either TBAs, or nurses who worked in their respective CHPS compound and midwives in the health centres or hospitals. All respondents accessed general health services in their zonal CHPS. The study concludes that, for full implementation of the CHPS to effectively contribute to the achievement of the MDG5, the District Director of Health Services should post midwives to the CHPS compound to ensure that skilled delivery services are provided. Keywords: Community based Heath Planning Service, Antenatal care, Delivery care and Postnatal care. 1.0 Introduction Health is a major global concern which has attracted many interventions. This is evident in the prominence given to issues on health in the MDGs. The fifth goal of the MDG focuses on improving maternal health by way of reducing maternal mortality by 75 percent; and like all the other goals, it has received countless attention on both international and community levels, especially in recent times towards achieving the set target. To identify the extent of achievement of the targets, the international community has in 2000 developed two ways of measuring the targets (Hogan, 2010). The first is to reduce countries’ maternal mortality ratios and the second is to attain universal access to reproductive health. A report by WHO et al., (2012) reveals different efforts by countries in their quest to achieving the 75 percent reduction in maternal mortality target. They estimated that, world maternal deaths stood at 287,000 in the year 2010, out of which, developing countries had a 99 percent share with Sub Saharan Africa alone accounting for 56 percent. Meanwhile, a report by the Central Intelligence Agency (2013) ranked Ghana 32 nd in the World Maternal Mortality Rate Index. According to WHO (2010), maternal health is the wellbeing of women during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum period. The conditions that may cause maternal death has been classified into direct and indirect, referring to obstetric complications of the pregnant state and previous existing disease that developed during pregnancy respectively (Dean, 2006; Say and Chou, 2011). A report by the Ministry of Health (MoH) (2012) in Ghana revealed that, maternal deaths have declined from 740 to 451 to 350 per 100,000 live births in 1990, 2008 and 2012 respectively. Consequently, the country was seen to be progressing in reducing maternal mortality, though this progress has been qualified as ‘slow’. WHO (2009) have also revealed in a report by Ministry of Health (2011) that only 58 percent of births in Ghana have access to skilled attendance. Meanwhile, Ghana Statistical Service (2012) had revealed that 43 percent and 84 percent of women in rural and urban areas have access to skilled birth attendants respectively. Giving to the trend of decline, the country is expected to achieve 340 deaths per 100,000 live births by the end of 2015 which