American Journal of Health Research

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Availability of and Accessibility to Maternal Healthcare Services in the Northern Bangladesh

Received: 19 January 2015    Accepted: 2 February 2015    Published: 3 March 2015
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Abstract

Poor women, in both rural and urban areas in the northern region of Bangladesh, suffer from high maternal mortality rates, and compared to other regions, this group also has a low proportion of up-taking ante natal care (ANC) and of births assisted by skilled attendants. This endeavour therefore took an attempt to critically examine the availability of and accessibility to maternal health care (MHC) services, provided by government and non-government organisations (NGOs) in the northern part of Bangladesh, with the specific objective of finding out how far poor women had the availability of and accessibility to MHC services. The study used both primary and secondary data to meet its objectives. Triangulation of methods (questionnaire interviews of service users and providers, and observations) were employed to collect primary data. A large number (160) of mothers who were pregnant or delivered at least one baby during the last ten years and the heads of relevant health centres were interviewed. An assortment of articles, reports, theses and books were consulted in complementing and substantiating the arguments in this study. The main findings of the study suggest that there has been an increase in the availability of and accessibility to MHC services. However, the increment varies across regions and social groups. Lastly, it concludes that rural, poor and less educated mothers have less availability of and access to MHC services compared to urban, non-poor and better educated women.

DOI 10.11648/j.ajhr.20150302.13
Published in American Journal of Health Research (Volume 3, Issue 2, March 2015)
Page(s) 63-75
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This is an Open Access article, 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 or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Availability, Accessibility, Maternal Healthcare Services, Poor Women, Rajshahi, Bangladesh

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Bijoy Krishna Banik. (2015). Availability of and Accessibility to Maternal Healthcare Services in the Northern Bangladesh. American Journal of Health Research, 3(2), 63-75. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajhr.20150302.13

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    ACS Style

    Bijoy Krishna Banik. Availability of and Accessibility to Maternal Healthcare Services in the Northern Bangladesh. Am. J. Health Res. 2015, 3(2), 63-75. doi: 10.11648/j.ajhr.20150302.13

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    AMA Style

    Bijoy Krishna Banik. Availability of and Accessibility to Maternal Healthcare Services in the Northern Bangladesh. Am J Health Res. 2015;3(2):63-75. doi: 10.11648/j.ajhr.20150302.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajhr.20150302.13,
      author = {Bijoy Krishna Banik},
      title = {Availability of and Accessibility to Maternal Healthcare Services in the Northern Bangladesh},
      journal = {American Journal of Health Research},
      volume = {3},
      number = {2},
      pages = {63-75},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajhr.20150302.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajhr.20150302.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajhr.20150302.13},
      abstract = {Poor women, in both rural and urban areas in the northern region of Bangladesh, suffer from high maternal mortality rates, and compared to other regions, this group also has a low proportion of up-taking ante natal care (ANC) and of births assisted by skilled attendants. This endeavour therefore took an attempt to critically examine the availability of and accessibility to maternal health care (MHC) services, provided by government and non-government organisations (NGOs) in the northern part of Bangladesh, with the specific objective of finding out how far poor women had the availability of and accessibility to MHC services. The study used both primary and secondary data to meet its objectives. Triangulation of methods (questionnaire interviews of service users and providers, and observations) were employed to collect primary data. A large number (160) of mothers who were pregnant or delivered at least one baby during the last ten years and the heads of relevant health centres were interviewed. An assortment of articles, reports, theses and books were consulted in complementing and substantiating the arguments in this study. The main findings of the study suggest that there has been an increase in the availability of and accessibility to MHC services. However, the increment varies across regions and social groups. Lastly, it concludes that rural, poor and less educated mothers have less availability of and access to MHC services compared to urban, non-poor and better educated women.},
     year = {2015}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Availability of and Accessibility to Maternal Healthcare Services in the Northern Bangladesh
    AU  - Bijoy Krishna Banik
    Y1  - 2015/03/03
    PY  - 2015
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajhr.20150302.13
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ajhr.20150302.13
    T2  - American Journal of Health Research
    JF  - American Journal of Health Research
    JO  - American Journal of Health Research
    SP  - 63
    EP  - 75
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2330-8796
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajhr.20150302.13
    AB  - Poor women, in both rural and urban areas in the northern region of Bangladesh, suffer from high maternal mortality rates, and compared to other regions, this group also has a low proportion of up-taking ante natal care (ANC) and of births assisted by skilled attendants. This endeavour therefore took an attempt to critically examine the availability of and accessibility to maternal health care (MHC) services, provided by government and non-government organisations (NGOs) in the northern part of Bangladesh, with the specific objective of finding out how far poor women had the availability of and accessibility to MHC services. The study used both primary and secondary data to meet its objectives. Triangulation of methods (questionnaire interviews of service users and providers, and observations) were employed to collect primary data. A large number (160) of mothers who were pregnant or delivered at least one baby during the last ten years and the heads of relevant health centres were interviewed. An assortment of articles, reports, theses and books were consulted in complementing and substantiating the arguments in this study. The main findings of the study suggest that there has been an increase in the availability of and accessibility to MHC services. However, the increment varies across regions and social groups. Lastly, it concludes that rural, poor and less educated mothers have less availability of and access to MHC services compared to urban, non-poor and better educated women.
    VL  - 3
    IS  - 2
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Sociology, the University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, Bangladesh

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