77 per cent slum women give birth at home

From NewAgebd
Seventy-seven per cent of women living in different slums of the capital give birth to their babies at home while 23 per cent mothers deliver their babies with help of untrained midwives.
Though most of the slum mothers deliver their babies at home, 73 per cent are aware of the proper place for management of delivery complication while only 55 per cent prefer delivery at hospitals, according to a study.
The study also finds that only 24 per cent of the women want to deliver their babies with help of midwives while very few women prefer the delivery with assistance of health workers or relatives or neighbours.
The study titled Assessment of Maternal Healthcare Needs for Safe Motherhood and Review of Services Provided at Slum Areas of Dhaka was conducted by Bangladesh Institute of Research for Promotion of Essential and Reproductive Health and Technology under the supervision of Social Science Research Council of the Planning Ministry.
The study shows that 94 per cent of mothers receive antenatal care where nearly half of the women has more than three antennal visits. But, 77 per cent women report that they have to pay extra money to get healthcare facilities.
The researchers find that 83 per cent mothers want more food than usual after giving birth while 49 per cent know that mothers shouldn’t work hard after child birth. Only 42 per cent of mothers take preparations for breastfeeding after child birth, said researchers who conducted the study.
The mothers tend to take less care during antenatal care mostly during last pregnancy because of economic constraints, lack of encouragement from family, lack of knowledge and also time constraints, one of the researchers said.
Almost all health facilities run by both the government and non-governmental organisations located in the study area provide antenatal and postnatal care, family planning and general treatment, but there is no provision for delivery at any health facility and moreover no efficient referral system, he said.
Only less than 10 per cent of the healthcare providers conduct delivery at home, he added.

Courtesy of BSS. Dhaka