Maternal and Child Health Care Practices among Raute Community (A Case Study in Jogbudha and Sirsha VDCs of Dadeldhura District)

Abstract

The study on"Maternal and Child Health Care Practices among Raute Community" is carried out based on primary data collected from the Jogbudha and Sirsha VDCs, Dadeldhura District. The main objective of the study is to assess maternal and child health care practices in Raute community. The specific objectives are to assess socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the Rautes, to examine the status of maternal and child health care practices among Rautes, and to examine the differential in maternal and child health care practices among background characteristics of the Rautes. According to the 10 th National Population Census 2001, the total population of Rautes are 658 (346malesand 312females) and they were found in 29 districts.In the study area, the total population is 378 of which192 are males and186 are females. The sex ratio is found to be 103.2.Among the 5 years and above household population 70.04 percent females are illiterate and66.09 percent male population are illiterate. More than 60 percent population (male and female) are engaged in daily wages work and only 17.5 percent male and female population are engaged in agriculture sector. Early age at marriage is most prevailing in the community. The result also indicates that the educational status of respondents is very low. Regarding health care, only 36.6 percent of the total respondents receivedantenatal services during pregnancy. Among those who had receivedantenatal services, the highest proportion women were served byVHW/MCHWs and the proportion of receiving antenatal care from trainedhealth personnel was very low. The coverage of TT injection was very poor in the community, since the coverage of full doses of TT injection was only23.9 percent. Most of thechildren were delivered at home,90.2 percent with assistanceof TBAs or familymembers/relatives. Only 9.8 percent of totaldelivery wasassisted by trained health personnel. While studying the post-natal care practices, the result was found mostsatisfactory than antenatal and delivery care practices. In this study, themajority of mothers made colostrums feeding for their births, that is 48.7percent. Duration of breastfeeding was found two years and satisfactory result was observed in supplementary food practices. In the reference of child immunization practice,around 40 percent and above children did not received any vaccines within the proper time and the prevalence of fever and diarrhoea were high for female children.General knowledge of oral rehydration salts (ORS) is wide spread among mothers(95.8 %). When asked about specific eating and drinking for sick children, the finding were less encouraging. The overall observation of the study revealed that the MCH care practice is inversely related with mother's age and parity, and positively associated with there spondent's education.