Impact of health centre availability on utilisation of maternity care and pregnancy outcome in a rural area of Haryana
Kumar, R.; Singh, M.M.; Kaur, M.
Journal of the Indian Medical Association 95(8): 448-450
1997
ISSN/ISBN: 0019-5847 PMID: 9492451 Document Number: 482363
A total of 600 married women (aged 15-45 years) were interviewed in 4 villages of the district Ambala in Haryana, India . Impact of health centre (HC) availability on the knowledge, opinion and practices related to maternity care and pregnancy outcome was assessed after adjusting the effect of socioeconomic status. Excepting 17 women (2.8%), all subjects knew at least one correct purpose of antenatal care (ANC) and 98.2% of women had contacted health staff for ANC. However, knowledge of the respondents about the components of ANC was found to be poor in study villages. Traditional birth attendants (TBAs) conducted delivery in 76.1% of cases in the village with a health sub-centre (SC), 75.6% in the 2 villages without an HC compared with 49.8% in the village with a primary health centre (PHC). However, preference for TBAs in the PHC village was 14.9%, in the SC village 33.5% and in villages without HC 36.3% (P<0.001). Among respondents having better awareness about ANC components, preference and utilisation of modern delivery attendants was higher. For maternity illnesses, consultation rate of government functionaries was 67.9% in the PHC village, 52.2% in the SC village and 55.8% in villages without an HC. Perinatal mortality rate of 76.0/1000 births in villages without HC was not significantly different from the rate of 87.4/1000 in the SC village but the rate of 38.9/1000 in the PHC village was significantly lower (P<0.01). It is concluded that awareness and availability of modern maternity services have significant influence on health seeking behaviour and pregnancy outcome.