Knowledge and Practice of Safe Delivery in the Rural Community in Bangladesh

Nasima Begum, Fahima Akhter, Hasna Jahan

Most of the developing countries like Bangladesh have undertaken significant progress in improving maternal health as well as to reduce maternal mortality rate (MMR).But the challenge in eliminating the inequity in application of maternal health services still remains. Aim and objectives: The aim and objectives of the study was to identify the socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge about the benefit of safe delivery services and other availability factors related to the utilization of the antenatal care facility among the women in selected rural community in Bangladesh. Study method: This was a descriptive cross sectional study where 350 married women of reproductive age were interviewed using semi-structured questionnaire from February to June 2016. Purposive sampling technique was adopted to select the sample size. After collection of data, they were checked, verified and edited manually to reduce errors. Master table was prepared first and then tabulation of data was performed. Result: In the study it was observed that most of the respondents were in younger age group (20-25years).Almost three- quarters (735, n=255) completed their primary education, 18% (n=63) did not go to school anymore. Most of the women (91.4%, n=319) were house- wife. Furthermore nearly half (46%, n=160) of the family had monthly income in between 5000-1000 TK. More than half respondents (53%, n=185) had, 4 family members. Regarding the number of ANC visit, about 53% mentioned that they visited 3-5 times in their last pregnancy. Considering about the immunization of the TT vaccination almost 93% (n=324) replied positively and out of this 93% more than half (59.27%, n=207) women had taken lifelong vaccination. Out of 225 (64.28%) women who attended in ANC visit during their last pregnancy, majority (38%, n=133) choose the UHC. Almost two-thirds (62%, n=237) of the respondents had .1 children while 38% (n=133) had only one child.68 % (n=238) of the respondents delivered their babies in hospital and their explanation to choice the hospital was due to having less chance of complication(52%) and for proper care of treatment(33%). In addition, more than half of the respondents (50.56%, n=) delivered their babies by the doctor. But the respondents (32%, n=112) who delivered their babies at home mentioned their cause as because of feeling comfort at home (82.9%, n=96). Conclusion: It was found in our study that the knowledge and the awareness about the safe delivery in the rural people is increasing during this period that also explore the achievement of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) in reducing MMR in Bangladesh. This finding will give the massage to other developing countries that are still struggling and taking many health policies to reduce the MMR. Therefore, for providing maternal health care and safe delivery practices in a standard level we should increase investment and improve the quality of services for the public as well as private health care sectors to keep this achievement up.