Women's preferences and factors influencing their obstetric care service utilization in rural Sindh: A Cross sectional Study.

Saira Kanwal, Ramesh Kumar, Ratana Somrongthong, Ukasha Ashfaq

The objective of this study was to explore women's preferences and factors influencing the obstetric services in a rural setting of Sindh Province. This cross sectional study was conducted on 100 women who were interviewed by using a validated questionnaire. The women who had given birth during the year preceding the study were eligible for inclusion in the study. The mean age of the participants was 27.5±2.0 and majority 86 (86%) of them were housewives. About 87 (87%) participants had an opinion that their obstetrical health decisions were always taken by their household members and families. 65 (65.7%) women reported that they consulted public hospitals for their antenatal care visits and 69 (69.6%) women preferred private health facilities for antenatal visits. More than half (62.2%) of the participants had delivered their last child in a public health facility, however, 39 (39.2%) women still preferred to deliver at home. Factors such as availability and affordability for health services were significant among pregnant women, those with income more than twenty thousand rupees per month, those with formal education as they were getting better obstetric care compared to those who had less income (<0.05) and those with no formal education. Study concluded that affordability and availability of services around pregnancy and birth were major factors responsible for preference for maternal care and could be linked with poor obstetrical care among rural women of Sindh. However, it is imperative to provide the obstetric care which is accessible without inconvenience.