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Care-seeking behaviors for maternal and newborn illnesses among self-help group households in Uttar Pradesh, India

BACKGROUND: India has made large strides in reducing maternal mortality ratio and neonatal mortality rate, yet care-seeking behavior for appropriate care is still a challenge. We conducted a qualitative study to understand the process of recognition and care-seeking for maternal and newborn illnesse...

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Autores principales: Aruldas, Kumudha, Kant, Aastha, Mohanan, P. S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5764050/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29297413
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s41043-017-0121-1
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author Aruldas, Kumudha
Kant, Aastha
Mohanan, P. S.
author_facet Aruldas, Kumudha
Kant, Aastha
Mohanan, P. S.
author_sort Aruldas, Kumudha
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: India has made large strides in reducing maternal mortality ratio and neonatal mortality rate, yet care-seeking behavior for appropriate care is still a challenge. We conducted a qualitative study to understand the process of recognition and care-seeking for maternal and newborn illnesses in rural India where a health intervention through women’s self-help groups (SHG) to improve maternal and newborn health behaviors is implemented by a non-governmental organization, the Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana. The study aimed to understand the process of recognition and care-seeking for maternal and newborn illnesses from SHG and non-SHG households in the intervention area. METHODS: Thirty-two illness narratives, 16 of maternal deaths and illness and 16 of newborn illnesses and deaths, were conducted. Women, their family members, and other caretakers who were present during the event of illness or death were included in the interviews. About 14 key informants, mainly frontline health workers (FLWs), were also interviewed. The interviews were conducted by two Population Council staff using a pre-tested guideline in Hindi. RESULTS: Our findings suggest that perceptions of causes of illness as “supernatural” or “medical” and the timing of onset of illness influence the pathway of care-seeking. Deep-rooted cultural beliefs and rituals guided care-seeking behavior and restricted new mothers and newborns’ mobility for care-seeking. Though families described experience of postpartum hemorrhage as severe, they often considered it as “normal.” When the onset of illness was during pregnancy, care was sought from health facilities. As the step of care for maternal illness, SHG households went to government facilities, and non-SHG households took home-based care. Home-based care was the first step of care for newborn illnesses for both SHG and non-SHG households; however, SHG households were prompt in seeking care outside of home, and non-SHG households delayed seeking care until symptoms were perceived to be severe. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that care-seeking behavior for maternal and newborn morbidities could be improved by interventions through social platforms such as SHGs.
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spelling pubmed-57640502018-01-17 Care-seeking behaviors for maternal and newborn illnesses among self-help group households in Uttar Pradesh, India Aruldas, Kumudha Kant, Aastha Mohanan, P. S. J Health Popul Nutr Research BACKGROUND: India has made large strides in reducing maternal mortality ratio and neonatal mortality rate, yet care-seeking behavior for appropriate care is still a challenge. We conducted a qualitative study to understand the process of recognition and care-seeking for maternal and newborn illnesses in rural India where a health intervention through women’s self-help groups (SHG) to improve maternal and newborn health behaviors is implemented by a non-governmental organization, the Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana. The study aimed to understand the process of recognition and care-seeking for maternal and newborn illnesses from SHG and non-SHG households in the intervention area. METHODS: Thirty-two illness narratives, 16 of maternal deaths and illness and 16 of newborn illnesses and deaths, were conducted. Women, their family members, and other caretakers who were present during the event of illness or death were included in the interviews. About 14 key informants, mainly frontline health workers (FLWs), were also interviewed. The interviews were conducted by two Population Council staff using a pre-tested guideline in Hindi. RESULTS: Our findings suggest that perceptions of causes of illness as “supernatural” or “medical” and the timing of onset of illness influence the pathway of care-seeking. Deep-rooted cultural beliefs and rituals guided care-seeking behavior and restricted new mothers and newborns’ mobility for care-seeking. Though families described experience of postpartum hemorrhage as severe, they often considered it as “normal.” When the onset of illness was during pregnancy, care was sought from health facilities. As the step of care for maternal illness, SHG households went to government facilities, and non-SHG households took home-based care. Home-based care was the first step of care for newborn illnesses for both SHG and non-SHG households; however, SHG households were prompt in seeking care outside of home, and non-SHG households delayed seeking care until symptoms were perceived to be severe. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that care-seeking behavior for maternal and newborn morbidities could be improved by interventions through social platforms such as SHGs. BioMed Central 2017-12-21 /pmc/articles/PMC5764050/ /pubmed/29297413 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s41043-017-0121-1 Text en © The Author(s). 2017 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Aruldas, Kumudha
Kant, Aastha
Mohanan, P. S.
Care-seeking behaviors for maternal and newborn illnesses among self-help group households in Uttar Pradesh, India
title Care-seeking behaviors for maternal and newborn illnesses among self-help group households in Uttar Pradesh, India
title_full Care-seeking behaviors for maternal and newborn illnesses among self-help group households in Uttar Pradesh, India
title_fullStr Care-seeking behaviors for maternal and newborn illnesses among self-help group households in Uttar Pradesh, India
title_full_unstemmed Care-seeking behaviors for maternal and newborn illnesses among self-help group households in Uttar Pradesh, India
title_short Care-seeking behaviors for maternal and newborn illnesses among self-help group households in Uttar Pradesh, India
title_sort care-seeking behaviors for maternal and newborn illnesses among self-help group households in uttar pradesh, india
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5764050/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29297413
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s41043-017-0121-1
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