Compliance of Maternal Health Educational Intervention in Urban Slums in India

Abstract

India contributes one fifth to the global burden of maternal mortality, which is a mostly preventable health outcome. The government of India and the city legislators of Mumbai have been working to reduce the number of maternal and infant deaths in the urban poor communities by innovative governmental health programs and improving of the healthcare system, yet due to the low female literacy rate of 65% in the nation just population based programs combat only some aspects of the program. The Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action (SNEHA), a Mumbai based non-profit, aims to work with women in vulnerable communities through one on one home-based educational intervention through local community workers. Literature reviews on educational intervention and health promotion stressed on the success of community health worker programs.This thesis aims to study the factors that lead to maternal compliance or non-compliance to educational intervention by the community workers in SNEHA. This was done through qualitative interviews with a random set of beneficiaries of the SNEHA’s Maternal and Newborn Health promotion program. The beneficiaries were asked questions about compliance of medical check ups, vaccination, and other factors of maternal and infant health. The conclusions of the thesis show that increased maternal compliance is related to better relationships with thecommunity organizers, and the negative perceptions of the public medical providers leads to lower compliance of medical check-ups.