An integrated approach to understanding the determinants of home births in a resource poor setting

Globally deliveries are still being conducted in homes and not assisted by skilled professionals, thus creating obstacle in further reduction of maternal mortality. Two hundred women, were interviewed about place of delivery and the reasons for opting for the same. Forty percent either delivered or planned to deliver at home. Distance to the hospital made 28 (35.4%) women chose home delivery and 17 (21.5%) women did so due lack of escort to the hospital. Pregnancy without complication can be delivered at home and too much of work pressure at home were common reasons for home-births. Auto rickshaw was the commonest mode of transport to the hospital (54%). There was significant clustering of home-births ( p < 0.001). Relative risk of home delivery was 2.63 times that of hospital delivery in a subset of sample. Spatial regression model did not show any significant predictors of home delivery.