Paper short abstract:

The present study was collected from ever-married schedule caste women aged 15-49 years from a sample of 575 households in order to study why women prefer home delivery among the schedule caste population of Manipur by using the structural questionnaire.

Paper long abstract:

The data for the present study was collected from ever- married schedule caste women aged 15-49 years from a sample of 575 households in order to study why women preferred home delivery among the schedule caste population of Manipur by using the structural questionnaire. The study shows that 78% of women received ANC services from the health institute (Government hospital and private clinic) for their most recent birth in the three years preceding the survey. Overall only 33.31% of deliveries were delivered at institutional delivery. While a significant majority amount (60.9%) was delivered at home. The most important reasons for not seeking institutional delivery were the lack of transport (26.18%) and perceived not necessary (23.89%), followed by financial constraint (17.8%) and shyness or fear of hospital (16.98%). Small amounts (15.71%) were because of the not permitted by family members. Traditional home delivery was seen as culturally acceptable and competent health workers. The availability of skilled delivery care services at community, available of emergency delivery facility in primary health centre with skilled staff delivery and increasing awareness among women to seek skilled delivery care.