Utilization of Free Maternity Services among Reproductive Age Women of Chepang Community in Nepal

Background: Approximately 287,000 women died globally from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth in 2010. Nepal is among the countries with high maternal mortality rates in South Asia region with estimated Maternal Mortality Rate 239/100,000 live births. Underutilization of health services is one factor contributing to high maternal mortality rate. In Nepal, 81% of births take place at home without skilled health providers. Many complications related to childbirth can be prevented by utilization of maternal health services. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among 71 respondents from May 15, 2019 to November 16, 2019 and it took by using total enumeration sampling technique. Structured self developed questionnaire was used to collect data using interview technique. Data was analyzed via SPSS software version 16 by using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: Utilization of free maternity services was extremely low among Chepang women of Western Region of Nepal. With regards to antenatal utilization during their latest pregnancy was 73.2%. Only22.5% of the respondents had given birth of their baby in health institution rest of them delivered at home. Majority of the respondents did not utilized postnatal services (95.8%) whereas only 4.2% respondents utilized postnatal services. There was statistically significant association between utilization of ANC services and age (p=0.000), income (p= .006), education of the respondent (p=0.001) and religion of the respondents (p= 0.044). Similarly there was statistically significant association between utilization of delivery services and age (p=0.29), education of the respondent (p=0.007) but there is no significant association between utilization of postnatal services and selected demographic variables. Conclusion: The study concluded that maternity services utilization is extremely low among Chepang women of Nepal. There was significant association between age, educational status and religion. Therefore the government and non government organizations effort on health awareness programme are essential to maximize the utilization of maternity services. Key words: Antenatal, Delivery, Chepang, Postnatal, Utilization.