Do women with higher autonomy seek more maternal and child health-care?
Author InfoGebremariam Woldemicael (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) Abstract Current research and policy on maternal and child health-care in Eritrea and Ethiopia focus primarily on female education and employment, while little attention is placed on women’s decision-making autonomy. However, the role of women’s decision-making in reproductive health cannot be overemphasized. In this paper, different dimensions of women’s decision-making autonomy and their relationship to maternal and child health-care utilization are investigated using data from the Demographic and Health Surveys of Ethiopia and Eritrea. We simultaneously consider the role of socio-economic (indirect) indicators of women’s status . The study shows that most autonomy indicators are important predictors of maternal and child health-care utilization although the strength and statistical significance vary by health-care utilization outcome and country, and in some cases significance is los
