Awareness and utilization of maternal benefit schemes among mothers in urban area

Abstract

Background: Motherhood is the most important stage of a woman’s life but can be a life-threatening condition too. During pregnancy, any woman can develop life-threatening complications that require immediate medical care. Maternal mortality is unacceptably high. About 830 women die from pregnancy or childbirth-related complications around the world every day. Maternal health care services are the measures to ensure safe motherhood through promotive, preventive, curative, and rehabilitative health-care system. In view of the difficulty being faced by the pregnant women along with high expenditure on delivery, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and state governments have launched many schemes to ensure better facilities for women during pregnancy and delivery. However, the success of these schemes depends on their utilization by antenatal and postnatal mothers. Aim and Objective: This study was planned to estimate the level of awareness about the various government maternal benefit schemes among and also to assess the utilization of maternal benefit schemes among those mothers. Materials and Methods: This was a community-based cross-sectional study. All the mothers who had delivered before 1 year from the start of the study were included in the study. The mothers were identified with the help of Accredited Social Health Activist worker and Anganwadi worker by door-to-door enumeration. A sample of 150 was studied. Non-probability convenience sampling was followed to select study participants. A structured interview method was used. Results: In the present study, most of the mothers (89.3%) were in the age group of 20–30 years with mean age of 24.3 years (± 3.4 years). The participant was considered as aware of the government scheme, if she had heard about the scheme and knows about certain key points of the scheme. Health care workers were the major source of information for mothers (62.5%) in our study area followed by friends and family for 17.5–9.2%, respectively. Majority of the mothers (65%) had utilized Anganwadi Nutrition Supplementation followed by Bhagyalakshmi Scheme and Janani Suraksha Yojana. Conclusion: Overall awareness regarding government maternity benefits scheme ranges from 6.3% (Madilu kit) to 77.6% (Integrated Child Development Services). The awareness about important Government Maternity Benefit Schemes specifically targeted to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality such as Thayi Bhagya scheme and Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram was low.