Abstract
Data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-2), 1998-99, analysed in this paper with multivariate logistic regressions, indicate that educational attainment of women is the most important factor in determining utilisation of maternal health care in rural, and, more pronouncedly, in urban areas, after controlling for all other socioeconomic factors. Standard of living (proxy for household economic status) too was found to be a significant determinant of accessing health services, in both rural and urban areas. Media exposure was important in use of antenatal care, which in turn was significantly associated with accessing delivery care.
There are indications also that as the rural population does not have the benefit of access and a woman must go to the nearest city or town for institutional delivery care, household economic condition does matter in this case. Unless transport and communication become easily accessible to villages and to health professionals and centres, many rural women, especially the poor and the illiterate, may not be able to afford appropriate health care at delivery.
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