A cross-sectional study of migrant women with reference to their antenatal care services utilization and delivery practices in an urban slum of Mumbai.

INTRODUCTION: Migrant is a vulnerable population. They face several barriers in accessing health services. The immigration status presents various challenges for maternity services utilization. So this study was conducted (1) to estimate proportion of women utilizing full ANC package and to find out reasons for its nonutilization (2) to estimate the proportion of institutional deliveries and reasons for home deliveries.

METHODS: A cross-sectional community based study was conducted among migrant women in reproductive age group in an urban slum. The sample size was 120. Multistage simple random sampling was done.

RESULTS: Maximum numbers of migrants (71.7%) were from Uttar Pradesh. Sixty two percent married before the age of 18 years. Full ANC package was received by only 18% migrants. Proportion of home deliveries was 12%, and all were conducted by Untrained Dai. Lack of transport facility and availability of Dai (local birth attendant) were the reasons mentioned for home delivery. For nonutilization of full ANC package, far location of health center (30%); it is not necessary (25.8%); and family did not allow them to visit health center (21.8%) were the reasons mentioned. Religion and type of family were significantly associated with nonutilization of full ANC package.

CONCLUSION: The present study revealed low utilization of ANC services and high proportion of home deliveries among the migrant women even after availability of health facilities for providing ANC care and to conduct deliveries in urban area.