International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | September 2019 | Vol 6 | Issue 9 Page 1 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Pandey D et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2019 Sep;6(9):xxx-xxx http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article An assessment of utilization of postnatal care services in urban area Jabalpur district Dhruvendra Pandey 1 , Priyanka Meshram 2 *, Arvind Sharma 1 , Rajesh Tiwari 1 , P. K. Kasar 1 INTRODUCTION Globally, over 500,000 women die around child birth every year, with over 90% of the deaths occurring in the developing countries, most of the deaths occur during or immediately after childbirth. 1,2 Postnatal period is a six- week interval between birth of a new born and the return of the reproductive organs to their normal non-pregnant state. 3 The timing of postnatal care is also crucial to the well-being of the mother and baby. The studies have shown that some 50% of maternal deaths and 40% of neonatal deaths occur within 24 hours after birth, also known as the ‘immediate postnatal period’. 1,4 WHO recommends that women, who have delivered in a health facility, should receive PNC for at least 24 hours after birth. If a birth is at home, the first postnatal contact should be as early as possible within 24 hours of birth. Three additional PNC contacts are recommended on day 3, between days 7–14 after birth and 6 weeks after birth. 1 There are few data on early postnatal care specifically. Still, many women who give birth in facilities, are ABSTRACT Background: Postnatal period is a vulnerable time, because most maternal and new born deaths occur during this period, especially immediately after childbirth. Postnatal care in the first hours and days after childbirth could prevent the great majority of these deaths. The objective of study was to assess the utilization of post-natal care and associated factors for low utilization in urban area of Jabalpur district. Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was carried 360 mothers who delivered in last one year in urban area of Jabalpur district. Sampling method was multistage sampling method. A total 36 wards with 10 mothers from each ward was selected. The questionnaire included information related to mode of delivery, post-natal checkups and visits of health care providers. Results: Among 360 mothers, 93.9% mothers received first postnatal check-up within 24 hrs. 1.11% of mothers between 2-3 days and 1.67% of mothers received first postnatal check-up between 4-7 days while 3.33% of mothers didn’t receive any postnatal check-up. Regarding number of post-natal visits, 58.33% mothers received 3 or more postnatal visits, 35% of mother received 2 PNC visits, while 3.3% did not receive a single postnatal visit. The education of mothers, joint type of family, high socioeconomic status, early registration of pregnancy, minimum 4 ANC visits and institutional deliveries were found significantly associated with utilization of postnatal check-up. Conclusions: Utilization of postnatal services is still poor in the urban areas even though the physical accessibility was adequate. In the present study, it was concluded that the role of education, especially of female education, is important contributing factor associated with utilization of postnatal care. Keywords: Post natal care, Urban, Maternal and child health, Urbanization, ANC service Department of Community Medicine, 1 Government Medical College, 2 N.S.C.B. Medical College, Jabalpur, Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh, India Received: 14 July 2019 Accepted: 02 August 2019 *Correspondence: Dr. Priyanka Meshram, E-mail: priyankamesh@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20193640