Length of Stay After Childbirth in India: A Comparative Study of Public and Private Health Institution

Pradeep Kumar , International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Preeti Dhillon, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

This paper presents a less discussed indicator of quality of postpartum care, that is, length of stay following a childbirth in the health institution. The aims of this paper is to examine the factors associated with this by public and private health facility. We use the recently released national representative data from National Family Health Survey-4, (2015-16) and apply Cox proportional hazard model to determine the factors associated with discharge from health facility. Average length of stay after childbirth is 3.4 days; 2.1 for vaginal and 8.6 for cesarean section deliveries. Strikingly, half of the women take discharge within 48 hours. Women who delivered in private hospitals have prolonged stay than public facility. However, this differential is prevalent only in vaginal deliveries, while women having C-section deliveries in public facility are staying longer than private hospitals. Present findings provide background of women who take early or late discharge after childbirth.

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 Presented in Session 10. Fertility, Family Planning, Sexual Behavior & Reproductive Health 2