Effect of Family Type on Birth Practices and Health Problems of Rural Women

Women's health status affects their productivity and thereby their role in society and development. Their own health is influenced by various factors, which need to be investigated to improve their health status. Keeping this in view, the present study was undertaken to find out the impact of family type on marriage and birth practices and health problems of rural women. It was found that the type of family had a significant effect on birth practices. The results indicated that 26.4% respondents from nuclear family were married after 20 years of age, while it was only 4.5% in case of joint families. In all deliveries in 58.3% cases were performed at home while only 33.3% in hospitals. Nuclear families were more conscious about post partum hygiene. A shift towards health awareness was observed among rural women as 73.3% visited doctors for pregnancy and birth related checkups which was quite higher than that observed in earlier studies. More rural women from nuclear families (71.1%) reported work excessiveness as compared to joint families (36.4%). A significant impact of family type on occurrence of diseases among rural women was also observed. It was concluded that women from nuclear families were more health conscious and had better knowledge in adopting marriage and birth practices than those of joint families.