| Maternal postnatal care in Bangladesh: a closer look at specific content and coverage by different types of providers |
| Authors: |
Eunsoo Timothy Kim, Kavita Singh, and William Weiss |
| Source: |
Journal of Global Health Reports, 3: e2019004; DOI:10.29392/joghr.3.e2019004 |
| Topic(s): |
Maternal health
Postnatal care
|
| Country: |
Asia
Bangladesh
|
| Published: |
MAY 2019 |
| Abstract: |
Background The first 48 hours after birth is a critical window of time for the
survival for both mothers and their newborns. Timely and adequate postnatal
care (PNC) is being promoted as a strategy to reduce both maternal and newborn
mortality. Whether or not a woman has received a postnatal check within
48 hours has been well studied, however, specific content and type of provider
are also important for understanding the quality of the check. The objective of
this paper is to understand who receives specific PNC interventions by type of
provider in Bangladesh.
Methods Data from the 2014 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (DHS)
were used to study receipt of specific PNC interventions – breast exam, vaginal
discharge exam, temperature check and counseling on danger signs – within 2
days of birth. Descriptive bivariate analyses and regression analyses using generalized
estimating equations (GEE) were used to understand if receipt of an
intervention differed by socio-economic and health-related factors. A key factor
studied was the type of provider of the PNC.
Results The proportion of women receiving specific interventions during maternal
PNC was mostly low (41.81% for breast exam, 39.72% for vaginal discharge,
82.22% for temperature check, 55.56% for counseling on danger signs
and 16.95% for all four interventions). Findings from the regression analyses
indicated that compared to having postnatal contact with formal providers (doctors,
nurses, midwives and paramedics), having postnatal contact with village
doctors was significantly associated with lower probabilities of receiving a
breast exam, vaginal discharge exam and receiving all four interventions. PNC
provided by NGO workers and other community attendants was significantly
associated with a lower probability of receiving a vaginal discharge exam but
a higher probability of receiving counseling on danger signs.
Conclusions During PNC, women were much more likely to receive a temperature
check than counseling on danger signs, breast exams or vaginal discharge
exams. Very few women received all four interventions. In the situation where
Bangladesh is experiencing a shortage of high-level providers, training more
types of providers, particularly informal village doctors, may be an important
strategy for improving the quality of PNC. |
| Web: |
http://www.joghr.org/documents/volume3/joghr-03-e2019004.pdf |
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