Incidence of Wasted Pregnancy and Health Facilities: An Empirical Study of the Indian Women

This chapter assesses the effects of antenatal care along with choice of the place of delivery, reported physical health condition and the incidence of anemia of mother on incidence of wasted pregnancy for Indian women. We also examine the socioeconomic–demographic factors affecting the access to health care and the health condition of the expecting mothers. Using the dataset from IHDS-II (2011–12), a logit regression has been estimated for assessing the effects of access to healthcare facilities along with the reported physical health condition of mothers on incidence of wasted pregnancy. The study has applied binary logit model for estimating the incidence of anemia and antenatal care and multinomial logit model for estimating choice of the place of delivery and reported health condition of the women as a function of selected socioeconomic–demographic factors. We find that access to antenatal care and access to hospital for delivery place significantly reduce the probability of wasted pregnancy. Incidence of anemia and reported poor physical health increases the risk of wasted pregnancy in India. Backward classes and Dalits have a major disadvantage in respect of both physical health and healthcare utilization. Place of residence, age at marriage, per capita income, education and media exposure of women are important for getting access to healthcare facilities which are instrumental for reducing wasted pregnancy.