Determinants of home deliveries - Findings from India DLHS 4 analysis

Abstract

Background: Place of delivery has major implication on decreasing maternal morbidity and mortality. India has adopted various policies to encourage institutional births, still there are large numbers of deliveries which occur at home. Thus, it is imperative to understand the risk factors associated with home deliveries among women in India. Methods: The national representative district level household data-4 (2012-13) have been used for this analysis. A multiple logistic regression model has been used to determine the significant factors associated with home deliveries. Results: A total of 22,363 live births were selected for analysis for the year 2012. Out of which 3,602 (15.4%) are found to be home delivery births, remaining are either private or government institutional births. North-east states are found to be high prevalence of home deliveries. The potential factors viz., age of women, educational level of both husband and wife, age at first birth, higher order parity and not registered for ANC check-up, etc., are significantly associated with home delivery birth preferences among women in India. Conclusion: Our analysis demonstrates that targeting the significant predictors particularly education of family members and compulsory registration for ANC check-up will significantly reduce the preference for home delivery.

Keywords

• dlhs
• home delivery
• institutional deliveries
• logistic regression
• women health status