1Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, Bangalore, Karnataka
2Professor and Head of the Department, Department of Community Medicine, Sapthagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Bangalore
3Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, MVJ Medical College and Research Hospital, Bangalore
Online published on 31 January, 2015.
Maternal healthcare remains a major challenge to the global public health system, especially in developing countries. Safe delivery practices being the integral part of these services have a long way to go and are influenced by various factors. Hence this study attempts to assess the extent of utilization of institutional delivery services and factors associated with utilization of delivery services.
A community based, cross-sectional study was conducted in urban field practice area of Dr B R Ambedkar Medical College, Bangalore. Totally 110 deliveries were included in the study, data was collected using interview method.
The study shows that 101(91.80%) were institutional deliveries. All home deliveries 9(8.2%) were conducted by untrained personnel. Reasons given for home delivery were unexpected, short labour and lack of knowledge about the emergency services in the area.
Health improvement strategies with a special focus on increasing mother's awareness on early signs of labour, danger signs of pregnancy and labour are of prime importance. Mothers must also be made aware of emergency health services available and importance of utilization of safe delivery services.
Institutional Delivery, Trained Birth Attendants, Antenatal Care
