Maternal & Newborn Health
Keeping maternal and newborn health visible, understood and prioritized.
Keeping Maternal and Newborn Health Visible, Understood and Prioritized
Advocacy has been central to AFPNC since its inception. Working with partners, families and professionals, we combine public education, media engagement, community mobilization, parent storytelling and policy dialogue to build understanding, influence priorities and advocate for better-quality maternal and newborn care.
“Preterms can survive. Let them thrive.”
AFPNC Rallying Cry
From Advocacy to Better Care in Practice
Improving quality and standards of care is an umbrella focus for AFPNC. The Foundation works with health professionals, institutions, researchers, families and policymakers to strengthen the environments, knowledge, practices and systems that shape maternal and newborn outcomes.
How We Advance Quality
- Quality-improvement and standards-of-care advocacy for maternal and newborn services.
- Health-professional learning and capacity-building as a quality-improvement tool.
- NICU support, refurbishment and care-environment improvements.
- Promotion of family-centered care, Zero Separation and Kangaroo Mother Care.
- Scientific workshops, technical dialogue and professional collaboration.
- Support for evidence-informed practice, WASH/IPC and safer neonatal care.
A fully integrated mother and baby model of care requires significant changes, including cultural, organizational, architectural, and funding transformations.Dr. Juan Emmanuel Dewez, Chief of Health and Nutrition, UNICEF Ghana, Purple for Prematurity Summit 2024
Selected Quality-Improvement Projects
Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital NICU
AFPNC supported Phase 1 refurbishment and improvement of the NICU environment at Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital in the Western Region, alongside practical support including mattresses and mobilization toward additional incubator capacity.
Stop COVID-19 Spread: Pregnancy & Newborn Care Under COVID-19
In 2021, AFPNC implemented a structured maternal and newborn health response across four regions. In partnership with the Family Health Division of the Ghana Health Service and other collaborators, the project delivered social and behavioral change communication materials, health-professional learning, and family-support interventions.
Purple for Prematurity Scientific Learning
The 2025 Purple for Prematurity program included a scientific training on advancing excellence in neonatal intensive care, organized with Accra College of Medicine and GRNMA, with 80 health professionals participating.
Wider Family Support Includes
- Practical care packages for mothers and newborns.
- Parent and patient education and health information.
- Psychosocial support and counselling connections.
- Parent networks and peer support.
- Parent/patient representation in research, policy and quality-improvement discussions.
- Support for family-centered care, Zero Separation and Kangaroo Mother Care.
For AFPNC, parents and families are not passive recipients of care. They are partners, experts by experience and essential contributors to stronger maternal and newborn health systems.
From Public Voice to National Decision-Making
Policy engagement is a major pathway through which AFPNC advances its advocacy agenda. The Foundation contributes patient and family perspectives to strategy, standards, financing discussions and national maternal and newborn health priorities.
Selected National Policy Contributions
- Contribution to Ghana’s national newborn-health strategy, action planning and advocacy processes.
- Participation in Ghana Health Service newborn strategy and advocacy structures.
- Advocacy for increased investment in newborn and NICU services.
- Advocacy for NHIS coverage for newborns receiving NICU care.
- Stakeholder representation in policy discussions and contribution to policy and guideline development.
A Defining Policy Milestone
Following the 2nd Purple for Prematurity Summit and a nationally televised JoyNews dialogue that reached more than 100,000 viewers, AFPNC was invited to present evidence-based recommendations to Parliament’s Select Committee on Health during the 2026 budget deliberations.
The Summit report records Parliament’s unanimous endorsement of the inclusion of NICU-related costs under NHIS, with implementation referred to the NHIA and Ministry of Health.
This milestone demonstrated how a patient-led, multisectoral platform can move maternal and newborn health from public awareness into national financing and policy dialogue.
Stand with newborns and their families
Support advocacy, quality of care and family support across Ghana and beyond.