title: Primary health centres: preferred option for birthing care in tamilnadu, India, from users' perspectives.
abstract: Tamilnadu state of India witnessed an increasing trend of institutional deliveries since the beginning of 1990s, with decline of domiciliary deliveries to nearly zero now. Among the institutional deliveries, a shift has been observed since 2006 wherein primary health centres (PHC) have shown a four-fold increase in the number of deliveries while other public and private health facilities showed a decline, despite equal access by people to all categories of health facilities. A qualitative study was designed to explore the determinants that led to increased preference of PHCs for birthing care. In-depth interviews and FGDs were conducted with recently-delivering women and their spouses. User-friendly ambience, courteous attitude and behaviour of staff, good infrastructure, availability of qualified staff, and relative absence of informal payments have contributed to increased preference for birthing care in PHCs. Barriers to seeking care from secondary and tertiary-level public hospitals and private hospitals have also made women prefer PHCs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Government Kilpauk Medical College, Tamilnadu, India.
authors.forename: T P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Jayanthi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Child Health, Tamilnadu, India.
authors.forename: Saradha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Suresh
authors.affiliation: National Health System Resource Centre, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Padmanaban
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016550:Birthing Centers / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008427:Maternal Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D057240:Patient Preference; D011247:Pregnancy
keywords: Birthing care; India; Institutional deliveries; Primary health centres; Quality of care