Quality of Free Delivery Care among Poor Mothers in Gujarat, India: A Community-Based Study.

Background: Government of Gujarat introduced a public-private partnership scheme called the Chiranjeevi Yojana (CY) in 2005, to improve access to delivery care for poor women. Till date, more than 1 million deliveries have been conducted under CY. Although CY has been evaluated, this is the only study using primary data to evaluate the quality of care.

Objective: The objective of this study was to (i) determine the quality of free delivery care and (ii) examine the differences in the quality of care between public sector facilities and accredited private sector facilities.

Methodology: The community-based survey was conducted in three districts of Indian state of Gujarat. Trained data collectors used pretested questionnaire in vernacular language between 7 and 10 days of delivery. Overall surveyed mothers were 3858 in the prospective study; analytic sample was 1616 mothers. Statistical analysis includes Chi-square test using IBM SPSS version 20.

Results: Quality of care was perceived to be good in both public sector and accredited private sector. When free delivery care was compared between two sectors, private sector was perceived to have better quality of care. This difference was statistically significant for indicators, such as infrastructure, allowed to eat/change positions, application of pressure on abdomen, and weighing of baby.

Conclusion: The study highlights the need for engaging private sector to improve access to delivery care for poor women. Quality assurance programs in Gujarat need to address respectful care issues in the public sector. Future research should include qualitative study to understand the drivers of quality delivery care.