Published Paper Details:

Maternal health care and its related statistics are not yet satisfactory in India contributing 25% of the total maternal mortality rate in the world. Only half of the women population in the developing nation receives the World Health Organization's (WHO) prescribed antenatal check-ups. Various factors such as autonomy of women, education, occupation and the level of awareness are responsible in conceptualizing the attitude towards seeking prenatal health care. The objective of this study is identification of women education and its relation to the level of health seeking behaviour. It also tries to examine the occupation of the women whether it creates awareness or grants them freedom of making decisions of their life. Methodologically, it is a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. The study area of the research is New Chandrawal village located near Jawahar Nagar, New Delhi. Semi-structured interview schedules were used along with in-depth case studies. All the respondents (15) were pregnant and aged between 19-34 years. Education, occupation and attitude and extent of usage of prenatal care were recorded. Information was also captured from the medical service providers which included the doctors and the Anganwadi workers and ANM's/ASHAs to understand the doctor-patient relationship. Major percentage of the population in the village lives below poverty line (BPL) and are not the native of Delhi. Education level is low and so is the awareness level. Regular visits to their native villages make it difficult for the service providers to keep a track on the high-risk pregnant women patients. The education level of women is directly proportional to the attitude of seeking prenatal health care. Since all the respondents were housewives; so, the relation between occupation and health care seeking behaviour could not be established. Various governmental policies have been activated in the area but still the traditional beliefs of childbirth persist making the maternal mortality ratio into a large figure. There is a need to understand the gap between what's been given and what is being received.