*Assitant Professor, Department of Development Communication & Extension, Lady Irwin College, Gurgaon, Haryana, India
**Associate Professor, Department of Development Communication & Extension, Lady Irwin College, Gurgaon, Haryana, India
Online published on 11 July, 2017.
The study was carried out in the villages of Haryana to appraise the impact of the Delivery Hut Scheme with the purpose of promoting safe motherhood and institutional deliveries in the state and hence understand the determinants that influence knowledge and practices of women pertaining to safe motherhood.
To explore and understand the determinants of knowledge and practices of women related to safe motherhood.
Exploratory Study
Women in the reproductive age of 18–40 years
Three districts of Rohtak, Gurgaon and Jhajjar based on the Human Development Index (HDI) scores were identified as the study locale. From each district, four Delivery Huts in four different blocks were randomly selected and ten women beneficiaries from each of these huts were interviewed.
The study deduced that knowledge and practices of women related to safe motherhood were significantly correlated and were dependent on caste, status of pregnancy, parity of child and land holding.
At the grassroots, determinants like caste and economic status (reflected by owning a land) govern the ability to access free-government sponsored health facilities or go for a paid higher private/government facility; and hence it strongly influenced a woman's intention to deliver at the Delivery Hut. Thus, all these aspects must be taken into consideration while planning an intervention and the facilities and behaviour change strategies should be tailored according to the differentials of social groups paying more thrust on quality along with quantity.
Delivery Huts, Haryana, Knowledge, Practices, Safe Motherhood
