Reproductive Morbidities and Treatment Seeking Behaviour among Rural Women in Manipur-Community Based Study

Abstract

Reproductive morbidity is a public health problem that affects the health and well being of women’s life around the world. The magnitude of reproductive problems of women both at national and global is high. In this paper, an attempt was made to assess the self reported reproductive morbidities, treatment seeking behavior and factors influencing reproductive health among two communities of women in Manipur. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from two hundred fifty women in the age group of 18 to 40 years by using in-depth interview and focus discussion methods. Analysis revealed that a large number of women (71.6%) had at least one or two kinds of reproductive health problems. The predominant reproductive health problems reported by the respondents were menstrual related problems (53%), urinary tract infection (51%) and white discharge with bad odour and itching (41%). Prevalence of unintended pregnancy was found among 24 per cent of the selected respondents. Income, standard of living, abortion history, number of pregnancy and number of living children have significant factors influencing reproductive health of the respondents. Treatment seeking behavior was poor as they are not aware about the consequences of reproductive ill health. Further, higher proportions of the tribal women reported symptoms of reproductive health problem compared to the non-tribal. The study felt the need to provide information on effect of reproductive health problems through awareness camp at village level in order to increase knowledge and practices of good reproductive health of women.