A STUDY OF EARLY MARRIAGE AND MATERNAL MORTALITY AMONG THE WOMEN IN A VILLAGE OF CHITTAGONG IN BANGLADESH

This was a descriptive type cross sectional study with a sample size of 217 selected by purposive sampling technique. Data collections were conducted between November 2014 to June 2015 to find out early marriage and maternal mortality among the women of Doulatpur village in Fatickchari Upazilla through pre-structured questionnaire. Out of total respondents, 42.39% belonged to 30-44 years age group. Most of them (27.19%) had education up to high school level, 18.43% had education up to primary level. Among the 217 respondents, (78.80%) were housewives. Out of the respondents 93.55% were married. Most of the families (39.10%) had 2 female members. Among the respondents, (42.86%) of them belonged to upper middle class and only 7.83% were of lower class. During first marriage, 23.50% respondents’ age were more than 18years. Maximum respondents (76.04%) had idea about the age of marriage and rest 23.96% had no idea about this. In total 174 respondents, 40.23% had multiple sources of idea. 30.46% and 9.77% got idea from media and neighbours respectively. Maximum respondents (83.87%) accepted the idea of marriage, only 16.13% didn't accept the idea. Out of 217 respondents, 73.27% had knowledge about early marriage complications. Majority of the respondents, 68.66% had idea about child bearing age and the rest 31.34% had no idea. Most of the respondents (36.87%) preferred hospital as the place of delivery and 30.41% preferred UPHC. Maximum respondents (73.21%) received ANC and 26.73% didn't receive this care. In most of the cases (35.76%) preferred MBBS doctors as ANC provider, 18.79% and 18.18% preferred specialist and FWV as their ANC provider respectively. 86.18% had no complications during delivery and 13.82% had complications. Maximum respondents (31.03%) got management from UHC. Among the respondents, 50.23% had no knowledge about maternal death during pregnancy. Maximum (96.77%) respondents said there was no maternal death in last one year. 71.49% of total maternal death occurred during delivery, 87.50% had no systemic and infectious diseases during pregnancies, 12.44% respondents had suffered from these problems. Among the respondents, 76.50% were normotensive, 18.89% & 4.61% were hypertensive and hypotensive respectively. Some suggestions were derived from the study. This study on early marriage and maternal mortality of the women of Doulatpur village will provide idea about the women of the country regarding the situation