Utilisation of postnatal care in Bangladesh: evidence from a longitudinal study

Abstract

Utilisation of health services is a complex behavioural phenomenon. Empirical studies of preventive and curative services in Bangladesh have often showed that the use of health services is related to the availability, quality and cost of services, as well as to social structure, health beliefs and personal characteristics of the users. The present paper attempts to examine factors associated with the utilisation of healthcare services during the postnatal period in Bangladesh by using prospective data from a survey on maternal morbidity in Bangladesh, conducted by the Bangladesh Institute of Research for Promotion of Essential and Reproductive Health and Technologies (BIRPERT). Both bivariate and multivariate analyses of the data confirmed that the mother's age at marriage had a significant and positive impact on the utilisation of quality healthcare services. The husband's occupation also showed a strong impact on healthcare utilisation, indicating higher use of quality care for postpartum morbidity by wives of business and service workers. The bivariate analysis showed that the number of pregnancies prior to the index pregnancy and desired pregnancies are significantly associated with the utilisation of postpartum healthcare. However, the results of this study were inconclusive on the influence of other predisposing and enabling factors, such as maternal education, the number of previous pregnancies, the occupation of the husband, antenatal care visits during pregnancy and access to health facilities. Multivariate logistic regression estimates did not show any significant impact of these factors on the use of maternal healthcare.

Factors associated with use of antenatal care services in a rural area of Bangladesh

“…A study in rural Bangladesh confirmed that higher education was associated with the higher use of ANC. 20 Primary-level of education (p<0.010), secondary level of education (p<.001), living children (p<0.001), read newspaper (p<.024), watching TV (p<0.001), and mode of transport (p<0.001) were the important correlates of ANC during pregnancy of the postnatal mothers.…”

Frequency and Timing of Antenatal Care Visits and Its Impact on Neonatal Mortality in EAG States of India

“…Over the years the salient functions of ANC have been to offer health information and services which firstly improves the health of women and the new-born [14]. Secondly, receiving ANC during pregnancy has emerged to have a positive effect on the utilization of postnatal healthcare services which reduces the odds of neonatal deaths [15]. The probability for inverse pregnancy outcome gets reduced almost by 90 percent for those having ANC visits four or more.…”

Timing and reasons for antenatal care booking among women in a tertiary health care center in Southern Nigeria

“…11,12 Early booking for antenatal care is also positively associated with four or more visits and such parturient are more likely to be assisted by a skilled attendant at birth. 13,14 Early booking is therefore a strong predictor of positive pregnancy outcome.…”

“…3 Several reasons have been adduced for this, including high cost of antenatal care, distance from the health facility, lack of permission from the husband, and cultural perception of health status in pregnancy. [11][12][13][14][15] This study was therefore conducted to determine the time of booking for antenatal care among women in the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.…”