Maternal Health Care in Rural and Urbanized Villages of Delhi - A Comparative Study

Abstract

Back Ground: No information was available as to how the two rural areas, one that is closer to urban facilities (urbanized villages) and the other one that is purely rural differ in terms of status of maternal care. Objective: To test the hypothesis that the pregnancy related care of mothers in urbanized villages is better than that in non-urbanized villages. Methods: The desired sample of 420 mothers was selected by adopting two-stage sampling in each of two districts of Delhi: South and South West. In the first stage villages and in second stage 14 eligible mothers with children of age of 6 weeks to one year were selected. Informed consent was received from the mothers before their interview. Results: More than two third of the mothers during their pregnancy got registered with government doctors/facilities and more than one fourth with private doctors/nursing homes or hospitals. More than 95% of the pregnant women received antenatal care during the second month of pregnancy. Eighty six percent of mothers received full antenatal care. Percentage of deliveries conducted separately in institutions and homes were almost similar in the two types of the villages. Postnatal care was received by more than 90% of the mothers.  Conclusion: Almost all the mothers were found to be availing the services such as Full ANC, Safe Delivery and Postnatal Care irrespective of their socio-economic background and place of residence.