Male involvement and utilization of maternal health services in India

The present paper examines the association between the men‟s knowledge regarding the maternal health service utilization and maternal health in India using data from National Family Health Survey 2005-06. The indicator of maternal health used in the analysis is safe delivery. Binary and multinomial logistic regression are used established the said association. Males involvement coded into two ways and two categories viz father present at the time of ANC visit or not, and whether at any time during the pregnancy any health provider or health worker told them about the various sign of pregnancy complications or not. The other independent variables used in this analysis are age, children ever born, work status of the women, education of the women, religion and caste. The findings clearly suggest that male involvement and their knowledge about maternal health significantly associated with the maternal health. Those women‟s husband has knowledge regarding maternal health and those are present at the time of ANC visit more likely to utilize safe delivery service.