European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Introduction: Maternal mortality and morbidity continue to be high despite the enormous
inputs and efforts imposed through National Health Programmes. Proper utilization of
maternal health care services plays an important role in reducing the maternal mortality rate.
Hence assessment of factors influencing the utilisation of these services become essential.
The objective is to estimate the proportion of women utilising the maternal health services
and to determine the factors associated with utilisation.
Methods: A cross sectional study carried out in mothers of under five children. One village
was selected by simple random technique from the 3 villages of rural field practice area of
Kakatiya Medical College (KMC), Warangal. All the eligible mothers for the study after
obtaining consent, were interviewed using pretested semi-structured questionnaire. Data
collected was compiled and exported to SPSSV20 and analysed using chi-square test.
Results: Of the 180 women, 6.7% had teenage pregnancies, 97.8% registered the
pregnancies, 97.8% had minimum 4 antenatal care (ANC) visits, 95.6% completed TT, 81.1%
consumed recommended iron folic acid (IFA) tablets, 98.9% had institutional deliveries and
47.8% had postnatal care (PNC) with minimum of six visits. Full ANC showed statistically
significant association with education and socio-economic status.
Conclusion: Though the utilisation has improved, there is still a lag in the IFA intake and
post-natal care received by mothers. This can be improved by giving separate incentive to
health care workers for post-natal visits.