Congratulations to Eunice Bawafaa, PhD Candidate and Trainee Member of the Women's Health Research Cluster.
September 22, 2022
Eunice, who is also a founding member of the Coalition of African, Caribbean, and Black Nurses in British Columbia, is the recipient of the 2022 Strengthening Mothers Through Research Award from UBC's Department of Family Practice, Midwifery Program for her research which "has the potential to improve the health care of many women in Ghana."
Extensive literature shows that the healthcare system in Ghana developed as a colonial infrastructure with European values, and women’s knowledge and experiences with reproductive and maternity care in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are discounted in the face of western biomedical practices and expertise. However, western practices are not always readily available in rural areas. Maternal mortalities resulting from a lack of access to reproductive healthcare is a major source of concern for most health institutions in rural Ghana and needs urgent attention. In fact, the major cause of reproductive-related deaths in SSA has been identified as constrained access to reproductive healthcare. Eunice's study aims to show how a contextualized explanation of women’s experiences and perspectives of reproductive healthcare can provide direction for nursing’s future efforts to improve access to care in rural Ghana.
“I gratefully share the news of this award with my supervisors, Dr. Suzanne Campbell and Dr. Alison Phinney. Their guidance, time, and support has gotten us this award which will help in the current research that we are working on. Congratulations to all of us!”
