The quality of care provided at union health and family welfare centres in Bangladesh: Clients’ perspectives

Abstract

The Government of Bangladesh attempts to provide reproductive health services that emphasize maternal and child health (MCH) and family planning at different service delivery tiers through a variety of service providers. For this purpose, it has established an extensive network of reproductive health services that reaches almost every village in the country. Female field workers, known as family welfare assistants (FWAs), work at the grassroots level and provide information and counselling on various aspects of reproductive health and refer clients when necessary to clinics. They also distribute oral contraceptives and condoms at the homes of married women of reproductive age, identify pregnant women and refer them to static points of service delivery, i.e. health and family welfare centres, for ante-natal care and for obtaining clinical contraceptives.