Utilization of maternal health services and post-partum contraception among Bangladeshi women attending a district level hospital

Abstract

Utilization of maternal health services and postpartum contraception help to decrease rates of maternal and infant morbidity and mortality by preventing unintended, high risk pregnancies and also by delaying subsequent pregnancies. A cross-sectional study was conducted to find out the utilization of maternal health services and its association with post-partum contraception among Bangladeshi women in a hospital in Gazipur district. A total of 344 women were randomly selected who had delivered at least one child within last one year and completed 12 months post-partum period. Uni-variate and bi-variate analyses were used as statistical methods. Mean age of the respondent was 21.5 years (Mean ± SD, 21.5 ± 6.634). Nuclear families (61.30%) were predominant in number. Most of them were illiterate (44.8%). Antenatal care was significantly associated with socio-demographic factors like respondents’ and their husbands’ education, husbands’ income and types of family. Only 17% illiterate respondents received antenatal care for four or more times whereas 52.38% who graduated or above received the same. Most of the deliveries occurred at home (54.4%). These deliveries were performed by non-skilled personnel (54.6%) while the rest were performed by skilled personnel. This study also found that postnatal care was significantly associated with respondents’ and their husbands’ education, and husbands’ income. This study is expected to help program planners, policy makers to design interventions for their programs to enhance the use of maternal health services as well as postpartum contraception among Bangladeshi women.

Keywords: Maternal health services; contraception; antenatal care; postnatal care; Bangladesh