Economic Empowerment of Women and Utilization of Maternal Delivery Care in Bangladesh

Objective: maternal mortality is a major public healthproblem in low-income countries, such as bangladesh. women’sempowerment in relation to enhanced utilization of delivery careis underexplored. this study investigates the associations betweenwomen’s economic empowerment and their utilization of maternalhealth care services in bangladesh.methods: in total, 4925 women (15–49 years of age) with at leastone child from whole bangladesh constituted the study sample. homedelivery without skilled birth attendant and use of institutional deliveryservices were the main outcome variables used for the analyses.economic empowerment, neighborhood socioeconomic status,household economic status, and demographic factors were consideredas explanatory variables. the chi square test and unadjusted andadjusted logistic regression analyses were applied at the collected data.results: in the adjusted model, respondent’s and husband’seducation, household economic status, and residency emergedas important predictors for utilization of delivery care services.in the unadjusted model, economically empowered working andmicrofinanced women displayed more home delivery.conclusion: the current study shows that use of delivery careservices is associated with socioeconomic development and canbe enhanced by societies that focus on general issues such asschooling, economic wellbeing, and gender-based discrimination.