Dimensions of Women Empowerment and its association with Utilization of Pregnancy Related Care Services in Selected Rural Area

Abstract Pregnancy-related care utilization is a fundamental urgency but family and community interference results in unattainability, though influence of different dimensions of women empowerment upon it is mostly unidentified. The study aims to identify the association between women empowerment dimensions and pregnancy-related care utilization. A cross-sectional study was conducted among conveniently selected 90 women attending purposively selected Chowgacha Upazila Health Complex, Jessore, for institutional normal vaginal delivery, between January and December, 2022. Maintaining human ethics protocol, an exit interview was done through a pretested semi-structured questionnaire. Women empowerment was assessed by a 3-point Likert scale under six dimensions (socio-cultural, educational, health-related, economic, technological, and life course) developed by country contextual modification of women empowerment index. Each dimension was recoded into two categories based on mean score. In multi-variate analysis, the health-related dimension was associated with iron-supplementation (OR=0.18; 95% CI 0.056-0.577), calcium-supplementation (OR=0.17; 95% CI 0.05-0.54), taking nutritious food (OR=0.07; 95% CI 0.02-0.29). The socio-cultural dimension was associated with nutritional supplementation (OR=0.17; 95% CI 0.04-0.7). The technological dimension was associated with ANC visits (OR=2.97; 95% CI 1.23-7.15). The economic dimension was associated with planned savings (OR=0.16; 95%CI 0.05-0.49). In bivariate analysis, the socio-cultural dimension was associated with frequency of meals (OR=11.1; 95%CI 1.4-89.1) and birth companionship (OR=3.3; 95%CI 1.4-8). The economic dimension was associated with frequency of meals (OR=7.22; 95% CI 1.4-33.6) and birth companionship (OR=2.7; 95% CI 1.1-6.4). The technological dimension was associated with frequency of meals (OR=4.9; 95%CI 1-23.3) and birth companionship (OR=2.7; 95% CI 1.1-6.5). The health-related dimension was found to be mostly associated with pregnancy-related care utilization. Hence, promotion of health-related dimension to enhance women empowerment could bring a successful pregnancy-related care utilization towards achieving SDG-5.