Publication:

An assessment of utilization of postnatal care services in urban area Jabalpur district

Background Postnatal period is a vulnerable time, because most maternal and new born deaths occur during this period, especially immediately after childbirth. Postnatal care in the first hours and days after childbirth could prevent the great majority of these deaths. The objective of study was to assess the utilization of post-natal care and associated factors for low utilization in urban area of Jabalpur district.

Methods A community based cross-sectional study was carried 360 mothers who delivered in last one year in urban area of Jabalpur district. Sampling method was multistage sampling method. A total 36 wards with 10 mothers from each ward was selected. The questionnaire included information related to mode of delivery, post-natal checkups and visits of health care providers.

Results Among 360 mothers, 93.9% mothers received first postnatal check-up within 24 hrs. 1.11% of mothers between 2-3 days and 1.67% of mothers received first postnatal check-up between 4-7 days while 3.33% of mothers didn’t receive any postnatal check-up. Regarding number of post-natal visits, 58.33% mothers received 3 or more postnatal visits, 35% of mother received 2 PNC visits, while 3.3% did not receive a single postnatal visit. The education of mothers, joint type of family, high socioeconomic status, early registration of pregnancy, minimum 4 ANC visits and institutional deliveries were found significantly associated with utilization of postnatal check-up.

Conclusions Utilization of postnatal services is still poor in the urban areas even though the physical accessibility was adequate. In the present study, it was concluded that the role of education, especially of female education, is important contributing factor associated with utilization of postnatal care.