Determinants of maternal health care seeking behavior in Bangladesh

Abstract

Although maternal mortality in Bangladesh declined almost one-fourth from 1329 in 1980 to 338 in 2008 per 100,000 live births, it is still one of the highest in the world. Most of these deaths can be avoided by providing maternal health care services. The Government of Bangladesh is providing free maternal health care service at the community level, yet the utilization is very low. This study tried to determine the causes of underutilization of services by using secondary data from three nationally representative Demographic Health Surveys. Results show that age, different time periods, place of residence, education, wealth, mass media exposure, age at marriage, and time wanted pregnancy are the determinants of underutilization of antenatal care, institutional delivery and postnatal care. In addition, field workers visit to pregnant women was found to be significant determinant for utilizing antenatal and postnatal care. The study suggests that the government needs to target poor and rural women who have lower education and lower age at first marriage. The government needs to make them aware of the necessity and availability of maternal health care services, which can be done through mass media and field workers.