The Association of Women’s Participation in Decision Making With Antenatal Health Care Access and Utilization in Pakistan

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) and other international reproductive health
community considered reproductive health accessibility and utilization as basic human
right. Reproductive health as a right includes determining the number, timing and
spacing of children. Despite some progress recently, still considerable challenges
continue to exist in the area of sexual and reproductive health. According to WHO
(2008) 358,000 women died in 2008 due to maternal health complication. It is alarming
situation to share that over 90 percent of those death are take place in Africa and Asia.
Among the various factors one of the major contributing factors to poor maternal health
care access and utilization is women decision making at domestic sphere. The main
objective of the study is to identify the association between women decision making and
Antenatal Care (ANC) access and utilization. The present research paper is based on the
Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) report carried out by the National
Institute of Population Studies (NIPS), Islamabad, Pakistan and ICF International,
Calverton, Maryland between October 2012 and March 2013. In PDHS the 12,943
households were interviewed, a total of 14,569 ever-married women aged15-49 years
were identified, of whom 13,558 were successfully interviewed, yielding a response rate
of 93%. In the present research study researcher calculated odd ratios (OR) and adjusted
odd ratios (aOR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) using logistic regression model.
Major findings show that majority 81.97 percent ever married women were not involved
as earning hand in the family and household purchase. Similarly, more than fifty percent
(56.27%) ever married women were not involved in decision regarding access and
utilization of maternal health care in Pakistan. It is concluded that women’s decision
making plays a significant role in determining antenatal health care access and
utilization, women with more decision making power are more likely to access and use
antenatal health care.