Abstract
In Nigeria, the lifetime risk of death from pregnancy or childbirth complications is 1 in 30. Maternal healthcare utilisation addresses the risk of maternal mortality and morbidity but its utilisation is influenced by varying factors of which autonomy has been neglected especially for young married women. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between young married women’s level of autonomy and maternal health care utilisation in Nigeria. Secondary data from the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey was analysed (n=4996) with consideration of young ever married women (age 15 to 24), who had at least one live birth in the last five years preceding the survey. The binary logistic regression models were fitted into the data. Findings revealed that only 30% of women aged 15 to 24 delivered at a health facility while 44% of the total pregnant women had four or more antenatal care visits before delivery. Also, young women with low autonomy were less likely to meet the minimum requirement of four antenatal visits (OR=0.35: CI: 0.29-0.43) and less likely to deliver at a health facility (OR=0.32: CI: 0.27-0.39). The study underscores the need to empower young women to achieve higher levels of autonomy due to its obvious implication on their health and to encourage integrated interventions that considers engaging household and community structures on the benefits of women autonomy and its importance for mother and child’s health. Policy and program considerations that would enable the removal of socio-cultural/demographic barriers towards women autonomy in Nigeria should be encouraged. Key words: Maternal healthcare utilization, antenatal, postnatal, place of delivery, women autonomy
Highlights
Maternal mortality refers to the death of a woman during pregnancy or within 42 days after the termination of a pregnancy, from any cause related to the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental causes (PRI, 2013)
On a global scale, developing countries account for almost all maternal deaths (99%) of the world maternal deaths (WHO, 2015), while in Nigeria, one woman dies every thirteen minutes from preventable causes related to pregnancy or childbirth making the country to account for 14% of the global total maternal deaths second only to India (APHRC, 2017)
The findings of this study are consistent with the findings of (Asweto et al, 2014; Baral et al, 2010; Bhandari et al, 2017; Deo et al, 2015; Fawole and Adeoye, 2015; Woldemicael, 2007b), who found that maternal healthcare utilisation is influenced by women autonomy
Summary
Maternal mortality refers to the death of a woman during pregnancy or within 42 days after the termination of a pregnancy, from any cause related to the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental causes (PRI, 2013). The world currently has the highest number of young people in all of human history, with about 1.2 billion people aged 15 to 24 as at the year 2017 (PRB, 2017). This large numbers of young people are faced with numerous challenges which threaten their health and social wellbeing including their sexual and reproductive life. Many of these young people especially girls in less developed countries get married at young ages, fall victim of adolescent or teenage pregnancies and so on
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