Maternal care utilization among adolescent mothers in urban India: evidence from DLHS-3

Aditya Singh, University of Portsmouth

Unacceptably high proportion of adolescent maternal deaths (9%) in total maternal deaths in India is a challenge for policy makers and government. Considering the lack of studies looking at factors associated with the utilization of maternal healthcare services among married adolescents in urban India, this study is an attempt to fill the gap using the data from District Level Household Survey-3. We used bivariate analyses including chi-square test to determine the difference in proportion, and logistic regression to understand the net effect of predictor variables. 23% women received full antenatal care(full ANC), 70% utilized safe delivery care and 65% had postnatal care check-up. The richest wealth quintile women (OR =3.850, CI =1.688-8.782), women with higher education (OR = 2.346 CI = 1.680-3.276) were more likely to receive full ANC. On the other hand, high parity women and Muslim women were less likely to utilize full ANC. Women from the richest wealth quintiles, with high school and above education, who had full ANC were more likely to go for safe delivery care. On the other hand, Muslim, low parity women were less likely to go for safe delivery. Women from the richest quintile (OR = 2.148, CI = 1.324-3.486), women with primary (OR = 1.341, CI = 1.029-1.747) and middle education (OR = 1.390, CI = 1.035-1.867), Muslim women (OR = 1.545, CI = 1.197-1.996), who received full ANC (CI = 8.191-12.371), and women with safe delivery were more likely to receive postnatal care. Promoting the use of family planning, female education and higher age at marriage, targeting vulnerable groups such as poor, illiterate, high parity women, involving media and grass-root level workers and collaboration between community leaders and healthcare system could be some important policy level interventions to address the unmet need of maternity services among urban adolescents women.