Rural-urban Disparities in Prenatal Care Utilization: A Study from Khulna District of Bangladesh

Abstract

This study attempts to identify the nature of prenatal care through a comparative study between urban and rural mothers living in Khulna district of Bangladesh. Two wards in Khulna City Corporation (KCC) and three villages under Rupsha upazila were purposely selected as the study area of this research. The data were collected from 148 mothers selected through simple random sampling method. Findings reveal that medical check-ups during pregnancy were common among most of the respondents (95.9%) in urban areas while it was much less observed among the rural ones (60.8%). Findings also suggest that respondents’ residence was associated with frequency of visiting clinics, taking extra foods during pregnancy and preferred place for medical check-ups during their last pregnancy. Besides, access to reproductive health care services, availability of medical facilities and doctors differed significantly from rural to urban area.