Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Postnatal morbidities if present adversely affect the health of the mother and baby, these being more in women residing in urban slums. The utilization of antenatal and postnatal care may act as factors to help curb these morbidities. Hence, this study was planned to estimate the prevalence of self-reported postpartum morbidity and its determinants among women aged 18-49 years and find the association between utilization of antenatal care and postnatal care received and morbidities reported. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study in the urban slums of Bhubaneswar over two years including 210 consenting postnatal women in the age group of 18-49 years using a two-stage stratified cluster sampling technique. A semi-structured pretested questionnaire was used for data collection which was entered into a Microsoft Excel sheet and analyzed using SPSS software. Multinomial logistic regression was used to ascertain independent association and a P value of < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. RESULTS: The prevalence of self-reported postnatal morbidities was found to be 57.62%. Occupation of the spouse, number of ANCs received, and laboratory investigations conducted during the antenatal period were found to be statistically significant. The illiteracy of the study participant and the occupation of the spouse were found as statistically significant in the multinomial logistic regression model. CONCLUSION: The postnatal morbidities were found to be high which reemphasises the importance of antenatal and postnatal care. Some ANC variables were found to contribute to the postnatal morbidities which when addressed timely can help curb these morbidities.