Ind. J. Phys. Anthrop. & Hum. Genet. Vol. 33. No. 1, (2014) : 71-81 MATERNAL OBSTETRIC HEALTH PROBLEMS: A MICRO LEVEL STUDY FROM WEST BENGAL, INDIA Shreya Mukherjee and Doyel Dasgupta ABSTRACT The present study aimed to compare antepartum, intrapartum and postpartum health problems, anepartum care undertaken and the experience of the women during the time of last delivery between rural and urban women. Furthermore, an attempt was also made to investigate into the factors that are associated with antepartum, intrapartum and postpartum health problems. We identified 200 participants belonging to Bengali speaking Hindu ethnic group from rural (100) and urban (100) areas of West Bengal. All of the participants were still in wedlock, aged between 15 and 49 years, had at least one child aged within five years before the date of the survey. Results showed that urban women more frequently visited the government hospital for the treatment of obstetric health problems whereas the rural women relied more on the service provided by the health workers; institutional delivery was reported to be high in both the groups; majority of the rural participants neither took medicine/any kind of special diet nor underwent any modern diagnostic techniques to monitoring the development of foetus during the pregnancy period. Significant rural-urban differences exist in few of the antepartum (blurred vision and giddiness) intrapartum (prolonged labour and sac burst with greenish fluid) and postpartum (pain in perineum, pelvic region and lower abdomen and vaginal discharge) health problems. Socio demographic (working and educational status, area of living) and reproductive (age at marriage) variables and antepartum care (months of pregnancy confirmation and taking of special diet) seem to be the factors associated with antepartum, intrapartum and postpartum health problems (p ≤ 0.05). Keywords: Obstetric problems, rural-urban, concomitants INTRODUCTION Globally, an estimated 287,000 maternal deaths occurred in the year 2010, and the reported incidence of maternal mortality was 210 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. The report also suggests that the maternal deaths in sub-Saharan Africa (56%) and southern Asia (29%) accounted for 85% (or 245,000 in numbers) of the Shreya Mukherjee, Research Student, Department of Anthropology, University of Calcutta, 35 Ballygunj Circular Road, Kolkata 700019, West Bengal, INDIA, E-mail: smukherjeeanth@gmail.com; Doyel Dasgupta, Post Doctoral Scholar, Department of Anthropology, University of Calcutta, 35 Ballygunj Circular Road, Kolkata 700019, West Bengal, INDIA, E-mail: dasgupta.anthro@gmail.com