Do First Time Mother’s in India Utilizing Less Maternal and Child Health Care Services?

Utilization of maternal health services has a potentially important role in the improvement of reproductive health status of adolescent women. Understanding the challenges of different aspects of adolescent’s reproductive health is very important. In order to get better understandings of adolescent mothers' needs, health seeking practices of first time adolescent and adult mothers during pregnancy and early motherhood are compared. The National Family Health Survey-3 data is used for analysis purpose which provides a comprehensive picture of population and health conditions in India. Findings suggest that first adolescent mothers are more disadvantaged in terms of health care seeking for reproductive health services during pregnancy and delivery compared to first time adult mothers. First time adolescent mothers were less likely to use all three services (any antenatal care, full antenatal care and institutional delivery) compared to first time adult mothers. These results are compelling and call for urgent adolescent focused interventions.