Men in Maternity Study

Think Reproductive Health. Think Women? Not Anymore.

The purpose of this study is to "test a model of antenatal and postnatal services" which is designed to help thousands of couples, especially men, by re-defining their roles in reproductive health and improving birth outcomes and maternal health. This is a collaborative study of The Population Council and the Employee's State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) in India and is also part of a global study that will assess the impact of male partnership in improving pregnancy outcomes and reproductive health. (Click here to access a summary of this data).

The Men in Maternity (MiM) study is "the first of its kind." The study covers topics ranging from child survival and postpartum services to sexually transmitted infection (STI) diagnosis and treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS.

"The MiM Study uses a nonequivalent control group design. Three primary care facilities were chosen for the experimental intervention while another three function as control sites. The study compares pregnancy and postpartum experiences of a cohort of 450 antenatal care couples drawn from the control dispensaries to a similar cohort from the intervention dispensaries for the same period of time."

The study includes:

• Introducing the intervention at antenatal clinics
• Behavioural change and communication materials for the intervention
• Couple counselling sessions on sexually transmitted Infections: risky behaviours, prevention and management of symptomatic cases
• Counselling on Lactational Amernorrhoea Method (LAM)
• Introducing universal on-site syphilis testing and management
• Introducing the integrated mother-child six weeks postpartum visit
• Mid-course corrections

The July 2002 Report: A Summary of the Findings from Pre-Intervention with Women and their Husbands Attending Antenatal Clinics at ESIC Facilities in Delhi, shares baseline survey results. Between November 2000 and November 2001, 486 and 581 pregnant women were interviewed in the control and intervention sites, respectively. 488 husbands were interviewed at the intervention sites. The key finding is there is, indeed, an unmet need for family planning among this population. For example:

• The number of medical termination of pregnancy/selective abortion procedures increased with parity.
• There was an interval of less than 24 months in 25% of the women who had a living child, despite a stated desired by 42% for delaying or preventing the current pregnancy.
• Of the women who preferred to wait at least 2 years before having another child, 44% stated they intend to use a family planning method. Of those women who did not want more children, only 68% stated they intended to use a family planning method.
• Almost all women and men stated that they would like to attend clinic services together. Two-thirds of the women wished to have the husbands present during the physical exam and labour and birthing, as did three-fourths of the men.
• Reproductive health knowledge, including fertility cycle, danger signs in pregnancy, importance of exclusive breastfeeding, Lactational Amenorrhea Method (LAM), and HIV/AIDS was uniformly low. However, in all cases, men appeared to know more than their spouses, even about women's reproductive health.
• Although most men had heard of HIV/AIDS, most women had not, and both genders possessed low specific knowledge of this disease. STI knowledge was even lower, especially among women.
• Women - and, to a lesser extent, men - had very low knowledge of danger signs in pregnancy, birth and immediate postpartum.

These differences may be attributed to husbands' higher educational level and exposure to the media by virtue of their working outside the home.

Click here for this report in PDF format.

Click here for the July 2002 report in PDF format.