Utilization of Quality Source of Prenatal-Care in India: An Evidence from IDHS.

India is committed to Millennium Development Goals regarding prenatal health but still the utilization of quality source of prenatal-care is lacking. In this paper an attempt has been made to examine the socioeconomic determinants of utilization of quality source of prenatal-care by the women in the age group of 15-49 years. Micro data having 25,896 observations from Indian Demographic Health Survey 2006 has been used. Binary logistic regression analysis is utilized to determine the association between the utilization of quality source of prenatal-care and explanatory variables categorized into demographic, socioeconomic, health and regional characteristics. Quality source of prenatal-care is defined as the prenatal-care taken from medical expert. The results have shown that age of woman at first marriage, husband's age, woman's education, husband's education, final say on woman's health-care by woman and husband collectively and husband alone, wealth index, female head of household, ever terminated pregnancy, household covered by insurance and husband's presence during prenatal visits increase the probability of utilization of quality source of prenatal-care. However, the combined family structure, birth-order of the child and living of the household in the town as compared the capital and large city decrease the probability of utilization of quality source of prenatal-care by Indian women. The implementation of law of minimum age for marriage, expansion in maternal health insurance, participation of husband in prenatal-care are proposed for enhancing the utilization of quality source of prenatal-care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]