Study on delivery practices among women in rural Punjab.

Abstract

Achieving 80 per cent institutional deliveries and conducting 100 per cent deliveries by trained personnel have been considered crucial amongst the national socio-demographic goals for 2010 set-up by Government of India. But the studies in India show that majority of the births particularly in the rural areas are still delivered at home. A study was thus planned with the objective of assessing the delivery practices and the factors associated with it in Verka block Amritsar (Punjab). The study was conducted in 2005-2006 covering 1000 respondents in 20 villages through door-to-door interview. About two-thirds (625 66.1%) of the deliveries were found to have taken place at home. The most common reasons cited for home delivery were traditional attitude (539 86.2%) and economic reasons (84 13.4%). More than half of the deliveries (497 52.6%) were observed unsafe. The study concluded that home and unsafe delivery is still widely prevalent in the rural areas of Punjab and is significantly more among the elderly and less educated females. The traditional attitude of preference of home delivery needs to be changed through innovative health education programmes and provision of quality maternal and child health services.