Factors Influencing Home Deliveries in Kerala: A Focused Ethnographic Study inMalappuram District
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37506/z07d9k60Keywords:
Home DeAbstract
ABSTRACT
Introduction:
The main objective of this study is to understand the factors that influence home deliveries in Kerala, particularly in regions where institutional care is widely accessible but underutilised.
Materials and methods:
A focused ethnographic approach was used in this study. Participants were selected using the information obtained from the health department. In-depth interviews were held with the women who had home deliveries in the past three years. Key informant interviews were conducted with stakeholders and focus group discussions were used for ASHAs and Anganwadi workers.
Results:
Traditional beliefs, peer influences, patriarchal decision-making, shyness and embarrassment, fear of hospitals, media exploitation, along with the availability of traditional birth attendants and encouragement from certain unqualified professionals all contribute to home deliveries.
Conclusions:
There is a need to encourage community participation and create and implement policies to protect the rights of mothers and their unborn children. This will help in ensuring safe delivery and delivery practices.
References
REFERENCES
World Health Organization. Targets of sustainable development goal 3. World Health Organization: 2015.
United Nations. Goal 3. Department of economic and social affairs: 2015.
Moran AC, Jolivet RR, Chou D, Dalglish SL, Hill K, Ramsey K, et al. A common monitoring framework for ending preventable maternal mortality, 2015–2030: phase I of a multi-step process. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2016 Dec; 16(1): 250.
Titaley CR, Hunter CL, Dibley MJ, Heywood P. Why do some women still prefer traditional birth attendants and home delivery? A qualitative study on delivery care services in West Java Province, Indonesia. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2010 Dec; 10(1): 43.
Taneja G, Sridhar VSR, Mohanty JS, Joshi A, Bhushan P, Jain M, et al. India’s RMNCH+A Strategy: approach, learnings and limitations. BMJ Glob Health. 2019 May 1; 4(3): e001162.
World Health Organization. The world health report 2005: Make every mother and child count. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2005. 229 p.
Randive B, Diwan V, Costa AD. India’s Conditional Cash Transfer Programme (the JSY) to Promote Institutional Birth: Is There an Association between Institutional Birth Proportion and Maternal Mortality? PLOS ONE. 2013 Jun 27; 8(6): e67452.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. HMIS 2020-21&2021-2 (An Analytical Report). New Delhi; 2022.
Jyotiranjan Sahoo, Satya Vir Singh, Vimal Kishore Gupta, Suneela Garg, Jugal Kishore (2015) Do socio-demographic factors still predict the choice of place of delivery: A cross-sectional study in rural North India, Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health 5:Suppl. 1, S27–S34.
Sarkar A, Kharmujai O, Lynrah W, Suokhrie N. Factors influencing the place of delivery in rural Meghalaya, India: A qualitative study. J Fam Med Prim Care. 2018; 7(1): 98.
Agrawal N, Tiwari A. Determinants of home delivery among mothers in urban and rural Vadodara district, Gujarat, India. Indian J Community Med. 2020; 45(2): 159.
Thind A, Mohani A, Banerjee K, Hagigi F. Where to deliver? Analysis of choice of delivery location from a national survey in India. BMC Public Health. 2008 Dec; 8(1): 29.
Sudhinaraset M, Beyeler N, Barge S, Diamond-Smith N. Decision-making for delivery location and quality of care among slum-dwellers: a qualitative study in Uttar Pradesh, India. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2016 Dec; 16(1): 148.
Publication Division, Department of Economics & Statistics, Government of Kerala. Gender statistics 2016-2017. Thiruvananthapuram; 2017.
Lockwood C, Munn Z, Porritt K. Qualitative research synthesis: methodological guidance for systematic reviewers utilizing meta-aggregation. Int J Evid Based Healthc.2015; 13(3): 179-187.
Devasenapathy N, George MS, Ghosh Jerath S, Singh A, Negandhi H, Alagh G, et al. Why women choose to give birth at home: a situational analysis from urban slums of Delhi. BMJ Open. 2014 May; 4(5): e004401.
Lekha D Bhat, Kesavan Rajasekharan Nayar. Indignities in Institutional deliveries in Kerala, India: Need for a monitoring mechanism. Vol. 5.
Bhattacharya S, Sundari Ravindran TK. Silent voices: institutional disrespect and abuse during delivery among women of Varanasi district, northern India. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2018 Dec: 18(1): 338.
Bohren MA, Mehrtash H, Fawole B, Maung TM, Balde MD, Maya E, et al. How women are treated during facility-based childbirth in four countries: a cross-sectional study with labour observations and community-based surveys. The Lancet. 2019 Nov; 394(10210): 1750–63.
Sahu D, Dutta T, Kumar S, Mishra NR, Neogi S, Mondal S, et al. Effects of Women’s Autonomy and Male Involvement on Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) Service Utilization in Uttar Pradesh. Open J Prev Med. 2016; 06(11): 260–71.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Athira K, K Rajasekharan Nayar
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.