Complications in Previous/Index Pregnancies: A Predictor of Utilization of Maternal Health Services

ABSTRACT

Background: Maternal mortality is on decline throughout the world, and still India accounts for around 15% maternal mortality of the world. Most of these deaths are preventable and avoidable if high quality care is given to a women. In order to achieve this it is very essential to examine healthcare needs and identify the demand side barriers in access to healthcare services by the women of reproductive age group. The study was thus planned to assess the current level of utilization of maternal health care services and factors associated with it. Methods: This descriptive, community based, cross-sectional study was conducted in the field practice area of urban health training centre (UHTC) of Department of Community Medicine, J N Medical College, AMU, Aligarh. It was carried out on 211 recently delivered women and the data was analysed using SPSS20. Results: More than 27%women reported some kind of complication in their last pregnancy. The commonest complications were found to be Anemia and Pre-eclampsia/eclampsia. Significant number of women in our study recognised the need of utilizing MCH care only after experiencing complications. Conclusions: A large number of women suffer from complications during pregnancy and complications like anemia go unnoticed, which can have grave complications. Most of the women opt for health care only if they had suffered from any complication during the last pregnancy.