Spatial Pattern of Maternal Health in Northeastern States, India: Evidence from National Family Health Survey 4 (2015-16)

Background: Maternal health refers to the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. Motherhood is not always a positive and gratifying experience, for many women around the world it is accompanied with suffering, ill-health and even death (WHO). Globally, about 800 women die every day of preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth; 20 per cent of these women are from India. Annually, it is estimated that 55,000 women die due to preventable pregnancy-related causes in India (UNICEF, India). This paper attempts to assess the spatial patterns of utilization of maternal health care services across the districts of northeastern states of India. And to acquire a statistical intra-assessment of relativity high and low performing areas with respect to geographically proximal areas. Data and Methods: We used National Family Health Survey-4 (2015-16) fact sheets data onmaternal health indicators for 87 districts of northeastern states, India. Applied spatial analysis: Moran’s I and LISA to assess the maternal health care services across the districts. Results: All the indicators depicted striking coverage variation across the northeastern states, India in this analysis. Among all the northeastern states, Nagaland is found to be poor in utilization of maternal health care services whereas Sikkim is found to be the better one.&nbsp