Birth Preparedness, Complication Readiness and Participation in Maternity Care among Men in a Rural Community, Odisha, India

Birth preparedness and complication preparedness (BPACR) is a key component of globally accepted safe motherhood programs, which helps ensure women to reach professional delivery care when labor begins and to reduce delays that occur when mothers in labor experience obstetric complications.In Indian community like Odisha, pregnancy and childbirth continue to be regarded as exclusively women's affairs, But male are considered as primary decision maker and financier for women's health. Hence it is observed that due to lack of involvement of husband in maternity care, proper decision cannot take for women to access care for obstetric emergency which lead to disastrous consequences. This situation makes men critical partners for the improvement of maternal health and reduction of maternal mortality by raising their awareness about emergency obstetric conditions, and engaging them in birth preparedness and complication readiness.

A descriptive cross-sectional study was undertaken among 200 ever married men in Mendhasal village, Khorda District which is a rural community in odisha state, India. Multi-stage sampling was used to select the samples and questionnaires was administered to assess men's birth preparedness, complication readiness and attitude of women towards male participation in maternity care and in-depth interviews was done to find out reasons for poor involvement of their husband in maternity care. The study found that majority of pregnancies was unplanned (96%). Only 28.5% of men ever accompanied their spouses for maternity care. There was very little preparation for skilled assistance during delivery (6.2%), savings for emergencies (19.5%) or transportation during labour (24.2%). Young paternal age, formal education and Hindu male were independent predictors of male participation in maternity care.

In Indian community set up, the role of men in maternity care is very poor, despite their economic dominance and decision making power. There is a need to increase involvement of men in their partner's maternity care through peerled, culturally-sensitive community education and appropriate health system reforms.