Positive Relationships with Husband and In-Laws Linked to Women's Use of Maternal Health Services (Digests‪)‬

Married women who have good relationships with their husband and in-laws are more likely than those with poorer relationships to obtain maternal health care, according to a study conducted in India.1 Among women who lived in nuclear families, those who reported having few problems with their husband were more likely than those with many difficulties to have obtained antenatal care (odds ratio, 4.1) and delivered in a health facility (2.3). Among women who lived with their husband's family, those reporting very few difficulties with their in-laws were more likely to have received antenatal care than women who had some or many difficulties (1.5). Women's agency in controlling money and their own mobility accounted for much of the association between relationship quality and receipt of maternal health care services. The data come from the 2002 Women's Reproductive Histories Survey, conducted in Madhya Pradesh, India. The randomly selected, household-based sample consisted of 2,444 married women aged 15-39 who had at least one child. Respondents provided information concerning their education, caste, parity and other factors that may affect health care use and relationship quality.