Socio-Economic Determinants of Antenatal Care Seeking Behavior of Woman at Tejgaon Thana in Dhaka City

Maternal mortality is a serious public health concern in developing countries including Bangladesh though most deaths could be prevented through proper and timely care and adequate management. WHO recommended four pillars for safe motherhood are family planning, antenatal care, clean safe delivery and emergency obstetric care. So this study found out the extent of receiving antenatal care by the woman at Tejgaon Thana in Dhaka city and identified the factors affecting the use of antenatal care.

The study revealed that most of the women (80%) of that area knew about ANC and 2 of 10 women never visited a health care provider. Only 17.5 percent visited 4 to 8 times during the last pregnancy. Most of them (60%) took adequate rest and avoided heavy work, took extra nutritious diet (56.7%) during their pregnancy. One-third respondents were immunized before pregnancy and one-forth did not receive IT vaccine during pregnancy. Only 33 percent delivery occurred at home without TBA little more than half birth weight was <2.5 kg. Birth weight was significantly related with number of visit, rest, avoiding heavy work and diet. Education of the women, women's income, total family income, age at marriage and number of children also significantly related with ANC utilization whereas age of women and total family size were not significantly associated with ANC utilization.