Association between maternal health continuum of care and child Survival: Evidence from a population based survey

Abstract

Mothers, new-borns and children are inseparably interconnected in life and health care needs. Therefore, poor maternal health care utilization during pregnancy, delivery and post-delivery may affect child health outcomes. The aim of the present study is to examine the association between continuum of maternal health care (CoC) and neonatal and infant mortality in India. Data for the study has been used from the fourth round of National Family Heath Survey (2015–16). The analysis has been conducted on 33,107 most recent singleton births of women aged 15–49 years. Findings reveal that neo-natal and infant mortality rates were higher for women who received no service (37 and 52 per 1000 live births respectively) than those who followed the full CoC (10 and 15 per 1000 live births respectively). Further, the bivariate and multivariate analysis showed that complete CoC by mother significantly reduced the risk of neonatal and infant mortality. The evidence from the present study gives direction for investments in intervention packages to improve the maternal health indicators which in turn may improve child health outcomes, particularly neonatal and infant deaths.