Thesis Report.

ABSTRACT:

A novel coronavirus disease (COVID) 2019, first off emerged in China, declared as a pandemic by WHO on 11th March 2020, affected all the sectors, including maternal and neonatal health (MNH) services. Thus, the objective of this study was to find out the factors influencing MNH services utilization during COVID-19 pandemic. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among 180 mothers having under 1 children residing in Hetauda Sub-Metropolitan city and willing to participate in the study were selected purposely. Data was collected from the community setting through the use of a semi-structured interview schedule. Descriptive analysis such as frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation was used to describe the socio-demographic, obstetric and service related factors of the respondents and chi-square and fisher exact test was used to analyze the association by using SPSS 20.
Most (99.4%) of the mothers had utilized ANC services at least once and 95% had utilized intranatal, postnatal and neonatal health services in health facility during their last pregnancy and childbirth. The most common hindering factors for utilizing the INC, PNC and NNC services was revealed as fear of getting infected by COVID-19 (100%), no problem present and lack of money (66.7%), negligence and avoidance by health care provider (55.6%), transportation problem and disapproval from family/spouse (44.4%), long waiting hours for checkup and closure of health facility (33.3%) and lack of proper knowledge about about available services (22.2%). Significant association was seen in between INC, PNC and NNC services utilization with the educational level (p=0.002), monthly family income (p=0.026), decision making in family (p=0.011), total no. of deliveries (p=0.039) and distance to nearest health facility (p=0.013).
Based on the findings, it is concluded that MNH services utilization were influenced by COVID-19. This study recommends that future pandemic responses should consider the impacts of movement restrictions and access to preventive services to protect MNH.

Keywords: Maternal and Neonatal Services Utilization, Service related factors, Mothers