The study was conducted to estimate the direct maternity-care expense
for women who recently delivered in South Delhi and to explore its
sociodemographic associations. A survey was conducted using the
two-stage cluster-randomized sampling technique. Two colonies each from
high-, middle- and low-income areas were selected by simple random
sampling, followed by a house-to-house survey in each selected colony.
Information was collected by recall of healthcare expenses for mother
and child. In total, 249 subjects (of 282 eligible) were recruited. The
mean expense for a normal vaginal delivery (n=182) was US370.7,beingmuchhigherinaprivatehospital(US 1,035) compared to a government
hospital (US61.1)oradeliveryinthehome(US 55.3). Expenses for
a caesarean delivery (n=67) were higher (US$ 1,331.1). Expenses for the
lowest-income groups were ~10% of their annual family income at
government facilities and ~26% at private hospitals. The direct
maternity expense is high for large subsections of the population