A Study on Obstetric Morbidity in India: Evidences from Reproductive and Child Health Survey -II

Santosh Gupta, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

In many parts of the developing countries including India, complications related to pregnancy and child birth are the leading causes of mortality for women of reproductive age; obstetric morbidity is one of them. Obstetric morbidity refers to ill health in relation to pregnancy, delivery and post-delivery periods. The National Population Policy adopted by GOI in 2000 (MOHFW) reiterates the government’s commitments to safe motherhood programme within wider context of reproductive health. This paper attempts to examine the influence of socio-economic and demographic factors on obstetric morbidity during ante-partum, intra and post-partum period and treatment seeking behavior among currently married women in India using data from Reproductive and Child Health Survey, 2002-04. Bivariate and multivariate techniques have been used to estimate the effects of various socio-economic and demographic variables on the likelihood of obstetric morbidity and also examine the influence of various factors on treatment seeking behavior by multinomial logistic regression.