| Abstract: |
Prenatal care consists of counseling, medical care and supplementary nutrition. As per WHO guidelines are
concerned then all the pregnant women are expected to visit four times to health care staff, hospitals and get the
counseling, medical care and supplementary food. We have used National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-1, 2, and 3
data and analyzed such data in STATA@10 software. We found that, lower access to health care facilities; education
and poverty, religion and caste background do not support the pregnant women to have minimum four required
prenatal visits. The multi-nominal logic regression result shows that poor, illiterate, lower age group, Scheduled
caste and Tribe pregnant women do not get the minimum required prenatal care. Such variables are positively
correlated and statistically significant with low birth weight babies in India. India has high infant, child mortality,
malnutrition and morbidity. Adequate prenatal visits by all pregnant women will certainly reduce the incidence of
mortality, illness and malnutrition in country. Government must broadcast prenatal related programs on television
and radio. Government must open up more sub centers in villages and in urban areas. Government must promote
private clinics/hospitals to provide prenatal care especially to poor pregnant women. Such efforts will certainly
improve health status of women and children and reduce the prevalence of child malnutrition, morbidity and mortality
in India. |