Effect of Maternal Healthcare Utilization on Early Neonatal, Neonatal and Post-Neonatal Mortality in India

This paper examines the effect of maternal healthcare utilization on early neonatal, neonatal and post-neonatal mortality in India using the recent round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) data. At the national level, for the last live birth of women during the five year preceding the survey, the early neonatal mortality rate was about 16, neonatal mortality rate was 19 and post-neonatal mortality was 7 per thousand live births. Also, only one-fifth of women who had a birth in the past five years received full antenatal care (ANC), 83 percent women received safe delivery and 65 percent women received post-natal care. Findings of the study indicate that full ANC and postnatal care were significantly associated with early neonatal and neonatal mortality. However, no significant association between safe delivery and newborn mortality were found after adjusting the socio-economic and demographic characteristics. Therefore, for a policy point of view, there is a dire need to strengthen supply dependent factors regarding public awareness, accessibility, and affordability of maternal and child healthcare services. It is also necessary to focus on increasing utilization along with continuum of care of maternal and child healthcare services to sustain the reduction in mortality during infancy.