The economic aspect of delivery care utilization

Chayan Roy Choudhury, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

The single most expensive event of reproductive health care is delivery which is almost three times for caesarean than normal delivery and twice in private health facilities than the public one in India. This study attempts to understand the economic advantages and burden an urban woman bears in the public or private health facilities in the course of delivery in India. Analyzing DLHS-RCH and primary data it revealed that abnormal foetus position which calls for necessary CS are 38 percent higher in the higher SLI women than the lower SLI but twice the women of the higher SLI access CS for this complication. The economic burden amplifies with the rates of CS falling beyond the WHO upper limit in the private facilities among all women, from all standards of living. The utilization reduced by the dampening effect of affordability had become a bane for the women in the lower SLI.