Assessing the Effects of Households' Slow and Rapid Onset Disaster-Related Displacement on Quality Antenatal and Delivery Care Service Utilization in Rural Bangladesh

Md Rabiul Haque, Department of Population Sciences, University of Dhaka
M Shahidul Islam, Chief, Population Planning and Research, UNFPA Bangladesh
Md Mashiur Rahman, Information Management Officer, UNFPA Bangladesh

Households’ recurrent displacement caused by climate-related slow and rapid-onset disasters affects Bangladeshi mothers’ health adversely and is a concern for SDG's targets. Our study examines the effects of household displacement on using quality antenatal care (QANC) and health center-based delivery (HCbD) care and draws comparisons by displacement status and nature of disasters. We used multivariate logistic regression to identify the factors associated with maternal healthcare service utilization using cross-sectional survey data of 2400 mothers, including 1200 displaced caused by slow and rapid-onset disasters, and 1200 non-displaced households. Results show that mothers' healthcare use is affected both directly and indirectly. Only 6% and 15% of slow and rapid-onset disaster-related displaced household mothers respectively had QANC, which is almost three times lower compared to riverine and coastal non-displaced household mothers. Slow-onset disasters-related displaced mothers have the lowest rate of HCbD among all. While mothers’ higher education, higher marital age, husbands’ higher education, households’ larger income, more use of ANC, and lesser time, costs and distance to reach doctors are conducive to heightened QANC and HCbD rates, displaced mothers’, particularly in riverine-mainland areas, have the highest vulnerabilities for those aspects. An inter-ministerial combined measure for displacement-prone regions would be an effective policy response.

Keywords: Population, Environment, and Climate Change, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Migrant Populations and Refugees

See extended abstract.