What he knows about her and how it affects her? Husband’s knowledge of pregnancy complications and maternal health care utilization among tribal population in Maharashtra, India

BACKGROUND: Husbands’ knowledge and awareness of pregnancy complications have a positive impact on their wives’ utilization of maternal health care services. In this study, we examined whether husbands’ knowledge and awareness of pregnancy complications can serve as determinants of maternal health service utilization among wives from the tribal population. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the rural Gadchrioli district of Maharashtra, India, during November 2014–March 2015. This study included a representative population-based sample of 385 men whose wives had given birth in last 2 years at the age of 15–49 years. A multistage sampling strategy was adopted to select the respondents. Univariate, bivariate, and binary logistic regression analyses were applied to examine the association between men’s knowledge and maternal health service utilization. RESULTS: The result revealed that an increase in husbands’ education level increased the wives’ utilization of antenatal (ANC) care services. The type of tribe also contributed to significant differences in ANC utilization (OR: 2.64; 95% CI: 0.847–8.24). Regarding standard of living, husbands who were poor were 22% less likely than husbands in the rich category to report the utilization of ANC by their wives. Men with partial or complete knowledge of pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum complications were more likely to utilize all maternal health services by their wives. CONCLUSIONS: The wives are of men who aware of complications during pregnancy and childbirth are more likely to use maternal health services. Therefore, educating and empowering men about pregnancy complications will contribute to the reduction in maternal and neonatal deaths. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12884-019-2214-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.