Publication:

Utilization of postnatal care services in a rural area of Nalgonda district, Telangana state, India

Background Promoting women’s health improves not only individual health but also the health of the family, community and the nation. Less attention was given for postnatal period in developing countries; women and their newborns don’t receive postnatal care services from a skilled birth attendant during the first days after childbirth. The objective was to study utilization of postnatal care services by recently delivered mothers, to study the geographical accessibility factors influencing utilization of postnatal care services and to study healthcare provider factors influencing utilization of post natal care services.

Methods It was a community based cross sectional study conducted in Cherlapally and villages around, which constitute the rural field practice area of Department of SPM, Kamineni Institute of Medical Sciences, Narketpally Telangana from September 2012 to October 2014. A pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect the data. The data was compiled and analyzed using SPSS version 19.

Results Accordingly, 97.9% of the mothers received postnatal care and 2.7% mothers didn’t receive the postnatal care. In the present study post natal advice was received by 67.8%, 82.2% and 55.1% of mothers regarding family planning, breast feeding and baby care respectively. Majority (79.9%) of mothers travelled greater than 5 kms for delivery and only 20.1% of mothers travelled less than 5 kms for delivery.

Conclusions Number of institutional deliveries and deliveries assisted by skilled health personnel were more compared to other studies probably because of awareness created during antenatal visits, maternity benefit scheme and role of ASHA workers.