Pattern and Determinants of Maternal Health Care Utilization among Muslim and Non-Muslim mothers in India

Abstract

Despite progress in many fields, India is lagging behind to achieve Sustainable Development Goals by fulfilling maternal health and improvement in Maternal Mortality Rates, especially sections of the society which often facing social exclusion to access healthcare services. Muslim women suffer from patriarchy, stigma and low utilization of maternal and child health services. Keeping this in mind, our study explores the maternal healthcare services utilization in terms of ante natal care visits, place of delivery and professional assistance at the time of home birth. It also trying to understand the socio-economic determinants that restrict them to use the services compared with the mothers belonging to other religions. The data from the fourth round of National Family Health Survey has been studied. Bivariate technique, logistic regression and Oaxaca decomposition methods have been used. Muslim mothers are lower in terms of receiving ante natal care compared with the women belonging to other religion. But in terms of institutional births and availing professional assistance at the time of home birth, they lie slightly in a better position. A significant rural-urban difference has been observed in the case of institutional births. Maternal and child health services utilization steadily increased with education, employment, mass media exposure, partner’s occupation and educational level. Redefined policy measures on maternal health would be a key step towards improving utilization of MCH services