Determinants of Choice of Care Providers During Childbirth in Rural West Bengal, India

Abstract

The article analyses determinants of choice of care providers during childbirth. Public health facilities provide care for free to all women during childbirth in West Bengal. In addition, a cash incentive is also attached with the service package for poor women who give birth at public health facilities. However, a section of women still prefer to give birth at home and some avail services from private facilities. The article attempts to explore the reasons underlying such difference. This analysis is based on primary data collected from four villages of Jalpaiguri district following multistage sampling method. It involved a survey of 251 households having at least one child below 2 years. Multinomial logistic regression model was used to analyse the data. The results suggest that quality of public health services, rural infrastructure, utilization of antenatal care and conditional cash transfers influenced the choice of care providers. Women who were eligible for and were aware of Janani Suraksha Yojana were less likely to go to private health facilities for childbirth. However, the programme did not seem to be effective in terms of reducing delivery at home.