The New Indian Journal of OBGYN. Epub Ahead of Print
Assessment of utilization of postnatal care services in urban slums of Jorhat town
Amarjit Borgohain, Giridhar Pathak, Bipul Deka
ABSTRACT
Background: Postnatal period is the most vulnerable time, because majority of neonatal and maternal death deaths occur during this period, especially within first month after birth. In spite of its importance, this period is generally neglected. Objectives: To estimate utilization of postnatal care services and to study the factors associated with utilization of postnatal care among the postnatal mothers of urban slums of Jorhat town. Methods: A community based cross-sectional study carried out at urban slums of Jorhat town. 94 postnatal mothers, who delivered during the time period of 16th October, 2018 to 15th October, 2019 were included from two randomly selected urban slums. Collected data were analysed using SPSS16. Results: Out of 94 mothers, 24.5% were illiterate, 26.6% were educated up to high school standard and only 6.4% subjects were graduate. We observed 91.5% of the study subjects availed postnatal check-up (PNC), whereas only 23.4% had complete PNC (≥ 3 PNC) and 8.5% did not have any PNC. Multivariate analysis showed education as strong predictor (AOR: 1.463, CI: 1.054-2.030) of utilization of postnatal care services. Conclusion: Education was found to be strong predictor in complete utilization of postnatal check-up. Other factors affecting utilization of complete PNC were adequate birth spacing, primigravida and age at marriage above eighteen years.