A STUDY ON UTILIZATION OF MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH CARE SERVICES IN RURAL FIELD PRACTICE AREA OF KHAJABANDANAWAZ INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES, KALABURAGI-KARNTAKA

Background: In any community, mothers and children constitute a priority group. In sheer numbers, they comprise approximately 71.14% of the population of the developing countries. In India, women of the childbearing age (15-44 years) constitute 22.2% and children under 15 years of age about 35.3% of the total population. Together, they constitute nearly 57.5% of the total population. Mothers and children not only constitute a large group, but they are also a vulnerable or special-risk group. The main aim of MCH Services remains to ensure that, throughout pregnancy and puerperium, every mother maintain optimal health, and at the end of pregnancy, a healthy mother and a healthy baby and promote the child health throughout the infancy and childhood. Methodology: A community based cross sectional study was done among 400 pregnant and lactating mothers having infant residing in rural field practice area of Aurad, department of Community Medicine of KhajaBandanawaz Institute of Medical Sciences, Kalaburagi from January -December 2017 for a duration of one year. A predesigned and pretested proforma was used to collect the sociodemographic details, utilization of Mother and child service at Aurad . Result: Majority of the subjects 184 (46.0%) were in age group 21-25 years and the mean age of mothers in present study is 24.53 ± 2.85 years. While, 30% Utilized ANC service and around 56% Utilized PNC service. Religion and utilization of antenatal services was found to be statistically significant. Conclusion: The better utilization of the maternal health services can be achieved by overall socio-economic development including focus on women empowerment and education, incorporation of religious norms and faiths in the health policies.