Factors Determining Place of Delivery among Rohingya Women in Rohingya Refugee Camp, Bangladesh: A Community Based Cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Globally an estimated 800 maternal deaths occur every day, which are mostly preventable. In 2015, 61% of 303,000 global maternal deaths occurred in fragile and conflict-affected states. The health status of Rohingya people in the camp is straitened because the humanitarian organizations only provide basic health care services. Accordingly, the majority of Rohingya women find it a huge barrier to receive quality maternal health care, which leads many women to death. However, there is very limited research about this topic. Aim: The study aims to explore the place of delivery and related factors that determine the places of delivery among Rohingya women in the refugee camps, Bangladesh. Methods: This study is a community based cross-sectional study and simple random sampling technique has been used to select a total 400 participants who had given birth in the last two years in the camps. Data were collected using structured questionnaires to interview women of childbearing age with two trained data collectors. Results: This study revealed that 66.5% of the respondents delivered their last child at home while 33.5% in a health facility. Women's decisions about where to give birth are frequently influenced by a wide range of complex factors, including socioeconomic position, education levels, attitude and respect shown by staff, availability and accessibility maternal health services, women’s faith on staff qualifications. Conclusion: therefore, there is a need for public-health interventions, policy changes, and effective measurement to enhance the utilization and improvement of maternal health-care services in the camp.