Publications

A B S T R A C T

Maternal and child health is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals.

Maternal and child mortality can be reduced by promoting institutional

deliveries. To achieve this, the Indian government has introduced some

maternity benefit schemes. The utilisation of schemes depends on the

awareness among the beneficiaries. We conducted this study to estimate the

awareness about government maternity benefit schemes among women

attending antenatal clinic. A cross sectional study was carried out among

women attending antenatal clinic in a rural hospital, Karnataka using a

structured interview schedule. The maximum awareness was for maternal

nutrition supplements under Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)

(83.6%). The awareness of the schemes was significantly associated with

education of mother, socio economic status of family, gestational age and

parity index. Source of information was mainly from health personnel (health

workers, health professionals), followed by friends and family. Awareness

regarding the schemes among antenatal mothers range from 0% to 83.6%.