PREVALENCE OF OBSTETRICS MORBIDITY: A COMMUNITY- BASED STUDY AMONG EVER- MARRIED SLUM DWELLER WOMEN OF GUWAHATI CITY

Studying the prevalence of reproductive morbidities helps in identifying the magnitude of such problems in the community. It identifies special at-risk groups to whom interventions should be directed as well as the most prevalent or serious problems. A community-based assessment also helps to identify the social context of morbidity. This paper aims at assessing the magnitude of obstetric/maternal morbidities among the ever-married slum dweller women and to identify their associated socio demographic factors. In our study, we have attempted to assess the prevalence of obstetrics/ maternal morbidities among the ever- married slum dweller women in the age group 15 to 59 years. We have resorted to two stage sampling procedure and primary data have been collected from the female respondents who were the residents of the slums of Guwahati City and who were married and were in the age group 15-59 years. This group of women was questioned regarding their problems related to place of delivery, problems during delivery and post partum period ranging from high BP, bleeding problem, high fever, etc, medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) and problems related to it. These morbid conditions were studied and analyzed under various socio- demographic factors like educational qualification of the respondents, their age groups and also their ages at the time of the first deliveries and the number of children ever born, so as to study their effect on the prevailing obstetric/maternal morbidity. This study reveals that obstetric/maternal morbidity in weaker section of the population residing in the urban slums of Guwahati is perceptibly high. Though programmes have been launched on Maternal and Child Health Care yet it has been observed that there has been reluctance on the part of the slum dweller women to redress their morbid conditions either due to ignorance or due to poverty and shyness. As such, implementation of these programmes have failed to meet the objective of lowering, if not eradicate, reproductive morbidities among the low socio- economic segment of the urban female population.