Safe-delivery practices in rural Bangladesh and its associated factors: evidence from Bangladesh demographic and health survey-2004.

OBJECTIVES This study examined the safe-delivery practices and its associated factors among rural Bangladeshi women. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey data from Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2004 were used. SETTING Rural Bangladesh. PARTICIPANTS A total of 3874 ever-married rural women age 10-49 years. MEASUREMENTS Age, education, working, religion, clinic visit, association with media, place and types of attendants at delivery. RESULTS About 94% deliveries took place at homes and 67% were assisted by the untrained traditional birth attendants called Dai. The qualified doctors and nurses (professionals) assisted only 9% of the deliveries while about 13% are by the trained traditional birth attendants. Age group has a significant effect on safe-delivery practices. Education of the respondents as well as their partner's has direct effect on delivery practices. The uneducated women were less likely to have their delivery assisted by the medically trained persons (MTPs) while women with 10 or more years of schooling had 29 times higher probability than the uneducated women. Currently working and religion had also statistically significant. Mass media influences directly delivery practices in rural areas. The women who listen to radio and watch television had more than 2 times higher probability of having delivery assisted by MTPs than that of non-user counterparts. There is more than 4 times higher chance of delivery assisted by the MTPs than that of women with no reading of news papers or magazines. CONCLUSIONS Delivery practices in rural Bangladesh are unsafe, took place at homes, conducted by untrained traditional birth attendants and associated positively with demographic, socio-economic, cultural and programmatic factors.