Linkages between maternal age at first birth, birth order with maternal and child healthcare in india

The regional variation of maternal and child health care in India has been established in the earlier literature. However, the study on linkage between birth order, maternal age at the first birth with maternal and child health care utilization across the various socioeconomic and demographic groups in the country are very limited. This paper tries to understand the impact of the birth order and maternal age at the first birth on maternal and child health care utilization. The present study has used the third round of the National Family Health Survey data. Binary logistic regression model has been applied for this paper. The result shows the women who had four or more birth order among them significantly low utilization of at least four ANC visits, safe delivery and full immunization of children age group (12-23 months). But in the context of infant death, the women who had four or more birth order among them infant death is significantly high {Exp (β) = 0.72, CI = 0.64 -0.81} than women had first birth order. The women’s age at first child is also highly significantly associated with the maternal and child health care utilization in India.