Determinants of Home Delivery among Mothers in Urban and Rural Vadodara District, Gujarat, India

BACKGROUND: Maternal health is severely affected by home deliveries because it contributes to maternal mortality, especially if home births are not made safer. OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to assess the determinants of home delivery among mothers in urban and rural Vadodara district, Gujarat. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This community-based, cross-sectional study was carried out during April 2017–July 2017. The mothers who delivered at home and hospital in urban and rural Vadodara district between April 15 and March 16 were included in the study. A semi-structured questionnaire was used for interviewing all the mothers. Information regarding sociodemographic and obstetrics characteristics of mothers was recorded. The study finding was presented in the form of frequencies and percentages, and the association was found with Chi-square test.P ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The present study was carried out among 138 mothers, of them, 71.7% were in the age group of 20–25 years. The mean age of mothers was 24.5 ± 4.4 years. The analysis of sociodemographic and obstetric factors revealed that mothers age more than 25 years, mothers from nuclear family, illiterate mothers, late antenatal care registration by mothers, mothers not registered in Janani Suraksha Yojna/Chiranjeevi Yojana scheme, and prior experience of home delivery by mothers were significantly associated with home delivery (P < 0.05 each). CONCLUSIONS: This study highlighted that several sociodemographic and obstetrics determinants related to mother were associated with home delivery in the study setting. Taking these findings into consideration, it is recommended that appropriate maternity services should be designed with a special focus on poor, uneducated, and multiparous women as well as it should ensure early registration of pregnancy for every pregnant woman. Institutional delivery should be encouraged and advocated among mothers having all previous deliveries at home.