Womens Autonomy And Reproductive Health In Nepal PDF Download

Giving childbirth is a natural phenomenon, still around a half million women die every year due to pregnancy and childbearing related causes and millions of other suffer from lifelong complications. Low utilization of maternal health services during pregnancy, at delivery and in the post natal period is one of the major factors contributing to high maternal mortality and morbidity. Nepalese women have considerably little power and autonomy than their male counterparts in making household decisions and even decisions concerning their own health care. There is a wide recognition that women’s inferior status in society limits their decision making to utilize health services, and different international conferences and treaties like CEDAW and ICPD have clearly advocated for improving woman’s autonomy. Furthermore, reproductive health interventions targeted to couples are found to be more effective as involvement of husbands may improve communication with service providers and support women to utilize health services. But men are traditionally considered an extrinsic factor in maternal health in many societies. Making women more autonomous and fostering husband’s involvement in maternal health are considered as the two promising strategies for improving maternal health. However, these two concepts; women’s autonomy and husband’s involvement may be potentially opposing, as women enjoying more autonomy may seek no involvement of husbands. This study was conducted to explore the different dimensions of woman’s autonomy that influence maternal health care utilization, and investigate how woman’s autonomy is related with husband’s involvement in maternal health care utilization.