Availability of and Accessibility to Maternal Health Care Services for Poor Women in Rajshahi City, Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh has made tremendous achievements in different health indicators, including maternal health (MH), over the last few decades. An increase in the availability of and accessibility to maternal health care (MHC) services is one of the prime reasons for the current improvement of MH. The study therefore took an attempt to explore the issue of MHC services, provided by different organizations in Rajshahi city, with the specific objective of finding out how far poor women had the availability of and accessibility to MHC services. The research used both primary and secondary sources of data. A triangulation of method (interviews of service recipients and providers and field observation) was used for collecting primary data. The data was collected during March and April, 2013, from two slum areas in Rajshahi city. Total number of sample is 200. Almost all respondents have the nearest healthcare centres providing good quality MHC services within their reach. The findings of the study suggest that there has been an increase in the availability of and accessibility to MHC services in the study areas which ultimately helps further improvement of MH.