Changing Trends on the Place of Delivery among Rural Women’s of Allahabad District in Uttar Pradesh, India

Delivery care is crucial for both maternal and prenatal health. Increasing skilled attendance at birth is a central goal of safe motherhood and child survival. The main aim of this study is to identify whether place of delivery is changing over time. And also to assess the socio-economic and demographic factors influencing women's decision for choice of place of delivery in rural areas of Allahabad district of Uttar Pradesh. This study is conducted in 20 selected villages by using purposive random sampling. For this purpose 800 women belonging to age group of 15-49 years were surveyed during July 2015-June 2016. The result of the study shows that 51.3 per cent of deliveries have been taken place at health care institutions and only 48.7 per cent of deliveries took place at home. All women who had completed higher secondary education were preferred health care institutions for their delivery (during last birth). The key factors influencing choice of place of delivery is education, age at marriage, low standard living condition. Having a distant health center, lack of transportation and financial constraints are the other main reasons for choosing a home delivery. It concludes that trend of delivery at health institution is remarkably increased but there is found strong differentials in low socio-economic status of women.