Health care seeking behaviour of women during pregnancy in rural south India: a qualitative study

Abstract

Background: Antenatal care is an important indicator in any health system. Through our study we intended to assess the perception of pregnant women regarding health seeking behaviour and awareness about complications during pregnancy. Methods: A qualitative study was carried out in August 2016, among the 41 pregnant women over 27 weeks of gestation in a rural area of south India. Women were selected randomly from the routine surveillance system maintained by Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences – Rural Health Training Centre, Chunampet, Kancheepuram District. Interviews audio recorded. After verbatim, manual coding and analysis was done based on pre decided eight themes. Results: In general all the antenatal women aware of the importance of regular antenatal check up. Knowledge regarding complications and danger sign was not adequate. Most of the women in rural area seek care in government facility due to its availability, accessibility and affordability. Decision making in health care is mostly taken by their husbands. Transportation has been identified as a barrier in seeking health care. Conclusions: Although few of the antenatal mothers in the study population were aware about some complications of pregnancy, but in general knowledge among most of the women was inadequate. There is a need for creating awareness among the antenatal mothers about common complications in pregnancy. On the other hand, the notion of routine care seeking during the antenatal period seems to be well rooted among the study population which is a very good sign. It is a good opportunity and is foundational to all other interventions relating to betterment of antenatal care in the community.

Health-seeking behaviour among antenatal and postnatal rural women in Kancheepuram District of Tamil Nadu: A cross-sectional Study

“…Similar findings were obtained in a study done by Vincent et al ., where among the postnatal mothers, 82.4% of them consumed IFA tablets for >90 days. [18] Non-compliance in the IFA medication in some of them would have been due to the adverse effects like nausea and vomiting. Similar findings were obtained in studies conducted by Jha et al .…”

“…and Saha et al ., where only 50% and 60% of the participants had adequate antenatal visits, respectively. [131822] These variations may have been due to the heterogeneity in the socio-demographic characteristics of the study participants and the availability and accessibility of health services in the respective study areas.…”

Assessment of maternity care services among pregnant women in a coastal area in central Kerala, India

“…This is usually the case in rural areas as shown in the study by Vincent et al in Pondicherry which showed most of the women in rural area seek care in government facility due to its availability, accessibility and affordability as per the qualitative study conducted by them. 13 Mini and Sidhiq in their study assessing pattern of antenatal care among women utilising a tertiary care centre in government sector for delivery, found that 59% had antenatal care services from Government institutions and the remaining 41% from private centres.…”

Cardiovascular risk using WHO-ISH chart among Diabetes and Hypertensive patients in a remote rural area of South India

“…From the electronic database called CHIMS (Community Health Information Management System) which maintains the health-related details of these individuals belong to the ten villages, patients with diabetes and hypertension were line-listed, approached, and invited to participate in the study. [ 19 20 21 ] after getting consent, data was collected in the concerned villages of the participants by setting up a camp with a pretested proforma. Plasma and serum were collected at fasting state and transferred to the main campus situated 30 km away, which has the NABL accredited labs (National Accreditation for Testing and Calibration Laboratories).…”