Abstract
Women’s autonomy or empowerment is an important issue to achieve targets for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of Bangladesh. There are several indicators to measure the women empowerment. Health seeking information is one of the most important indicators in this view. This study aims at identifying women’s maternal and child health-care seeking in relation to women empowerment in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2014 data was used for the study. A total of 1875 women of reproductive age with complete information on the selected predictors were identified for this analysis by multistage stratified cluster sampling design. Multiple logistic regression and X2 statistic were used to study determinant factors. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Among 1875 women sampled, 87.7% and 88.5% were received antenatal care and postnatal care respectively. Out of women who resided in urban areas, 91.2% women got postnatal care and 93.7% women received antenatal care where as only 83.4% rural women’s get antenatal care and 86.6% women got postnatal care respectively. Division, type of residence, respondent’s education level, wealth index, decision maker for using contraception, partner's education level, respondent’s currently working status, beating justified if wife goes out without telling husband, neglects the children, argues with husband, refuses to have sex with husband, burns the food respectively, women’s body mass index and age of 1st birth were found to be statistically significant determinants of receiving antenatal care. Type of residence, wealth index, respondent’s currently working status, person who usually decides on visits to family or relatives, beating justified if wife argues with husband were found to be statistically significant determinants of receiving postnatal care. In summary, our analysis highlights concerning continuing healthcare-seeking challenges in Bangladesh. This study explores the factors associated with women’s autonomy and reproductive healthcare-seeking behavior in Bangladesh.
Highlights
Empowerment is broadly recognized as a process by which those who have been unnerved are able to increase their self-efficacy, make life-enhancing decisions, and obtain control over resources [1,2,3]
Data on 17842 women were extracted from 2014 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS)
10.5% of the women had no years of formal education
Summary
Empowerment is broadly recognized as a process by which those who have been unnerved are able to increase their self-efficacy, make life-enhancing decisions, and obtain control over resources [1,2,3]. In developing countries women empowerment (i.e. control over resources, decision making, autonomy) influence reproductive healthcare seeking behavior and use of prenatal, postnatal care. Likewise in Bangladesh increased empowerment of women is likely to increase their ability to seek out and use health services to better meet their own reproductive health goals, including the goal of safe motherhood and in child health care seeking behavior [8,9]. The level of education, freedom of choice/movement, power in the household decision making process and involvement in economic activities among women are positively and significantly related to the decision and intensity of utilization of antenatal care in Bangladesh [10]. Increased empowerment of women is likely to increase their ability to seek out and use health services from qualified health providers in meeting their own reproductive health goals, including safe motherhood [12]
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