Male participation in reproductive health issues has been considered to be an effective and promising strategy to address the women’s reproductive health problems since the 1990s. Under this background, we aim to explore the women’s perception of men’s involvement in antenatal care (ANC), delivery and postnatal care (PNC) in the slum community of Bangladesh where various sexual and reproductive health problems exist. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among women and their husbands living in 12 slums of Chattogram city. Cross-tabulation with chi-square tests and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the predictors of husbands’ support in wives’ antenatal, delivery and postnatal care. The study demonstrates that the education and economic level of most women and their husbands were very low although husbands seemed to have a better status than wives in these aspects. Almost all men (~90%) had never accessed services related to reproductive and maternal health. Only 10% of respondents gave birth to their last baby in government hospitals or private clinics. In addition, 60% of the husbands took care of their wives during pregnancy with 44% during childbirth and about 30% providing help in receiving postpartum care. Moreover, husbands’ discussions with a health worker regarding maternal and reproductive health were the most important predictors for support of their wives during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum care (p < 0.05). Study participants’ perception of a satisfying spousal relationship also appeared to be a significant factor for husbands’ responsible role regarding wives’ antenatal care, delivery and postnatal care (p < 0.05). This study found that pregnant women living in slums received poorer health-related services when there was a low involvement of men; specifically, the husbands of pregnant women. In addition, men’s involvement was influenced by many aspects, particularly awareness-related factors (e.g., knowledge, communication and access to reproductive health services). Therefore, awareness creation is important for active involvement in antenatal, delivery and postnatal care. Strategies should be designed to provide men living in the slums with adequate information, education and communication to gain their interest and support about reproductive and maternal health.

The aim of the study was to examine the level of communication between mother-adolescent daughter regarding sexual and reproductive health in Rangpur Division of Bangladesh. A school-based cross-sectional study was conducted among four high school students attending at class 9 and class 10 in Rangpur Division. The researchers utilized Bandura's (1977) social learning theory as theoretical framework, purposive and random sampling as sampling strategy in the study. Using a standardized and self-administered questionnaire, information was collected. Microsoft (MS) Excel and SPSS v. 25 were used to analyze the collected data. More than one-third of the students (33.80%) had a poor communication status with mother regarding reproductive health issues. Other findings include: 77.78% students had a regular discussion with their mothers, 57.41% mentioned a few contents had been covered in the discussion, and 36.11% students had been experienced with onesided interaction about this.The subjects of mother-daughter interaction were often limited to issues involving the menstrual cycle. Mothers were the principal source of reproductive health information and the first point of communication after the period. The subjects covered in the communication on motherto-girl reproductive health were limited to period-related queries but the overall communications status between teens and their moms on the reproductive health problem was high. It is crucial to improve sexual and reproductive health/wellness education programs by integrating them into textbooks and implementing behavioral change communication (BCC) elements.