Women’s Empowerment and Maternal Health Service Utilization in Nepal

This paper is an attempt to examine whether women’s empowerment is associated with maternal health service utilization in the context of Nepal. This paper has used data from the cross sectional population-based Nepal Demographic and Health Survey, 2011. The analysis is confined to women who had given birth in the five years preceding the survey (n=4,148). The net effect of women’s empowerment related variables on adequate prenatal, delivery and postnatal care after controlling for the effect of other predictors has been measured through multivariate analysis (multivariable logistic regressions). The findings indicate that utilization of maternal health services was low. Higher level of women’s empowerment was associated with greater use of prenatal, delivery and postnatal care. It can be concluded that programs should aim to increase use of maternal health services by improving women’s empowerment so that the overall well-being of the family maintained and enhanced.