INTRODUCTION:

Pregnancy is a wonderful stage in a woman’s life¹. Women and men can both experience mental health issues during the pregnancy (the antenatal period) as well as after the birth of the baby (the postnatal period). For some people pregnancy can lead to conditions such as depression, anxiety, etc². Since men hold social and economic power and have control over their partners, male should be involved in the various postnatal mother and new born care³.

Male participation in maternal and child health care is very important because simultaneous participation of male and female is very essential in reproductive health without any ignorance in maternal and child health care in nuclear families of modern world⁴. Even though female’s knowledge and ability is enough to rear and care a child and self-care of a mother, male participation in MCH care should be improved in order to improve the quality of Know a day’s postnatal blues and psychological disorders are common among the postnatal mothers, effective male participation can reduce the incidence of these disorders⁵.

Statement of problem:

A descriptive study to assess male participation in maternal and child health care among the husbands of women consulting the gynecological department of selected hospitals in Kottakkal.

Objectives:

· To describe and analyse the extent of involvement in maternal and child health care among the husbands of women consulting gynaecological department of the hospital

· To assess the various types of postnatal mother and newborn care provided by the male

· To identify the reason for non participation in maternal and child health care

· To identify the association between the extent of male involvement in maternal and child health care among the husbands of women consulting gynaecological department with selected socio demographic variables

Assumptions:

· The extent of male participation in maternal and child health care is negligible

· The knowledge of male regarding the maternal and child health care vary from one person to another based on their age group

· Psychological support within the family can be elicited by male participation in maternal and child health care.

METHODOLOGY:

A Quantitative approach, non experimental descriptive exploratory research design was chosen for this study. The study was conducted at Almas hospital, Kottakkal, Kerala, India. The samples comprised of 30 husbands of postnatal mothers consulting the gynaecological department of the hospital were selected by probability simple random sampling technique. After getting the consent, socio demographic data were assessed by using socio demographic performa, the extent of male participation in maternal and child health care and reason for non participation were assessed by Structured questionnaire and Various care provided by the male participants were assessed by using a Checklist.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

Section I: Distribution of demographic characteristics of husbands of women consulting gynaecological department of the hospital

Table 1-Frequency and percentage distribution of participants according to age, educational status, residing area, religion, health care access, wife’s employment status, and number of children

(n=30)

Variables	Category	Frequency (f)	(%)
Age in years	25-30	8	26.7
	30-35	9	30
	35-40	11	36.7
	40-45	2	6.6
Educational status	Primary	13	43.3
	Secondary	11	36.7
	Graduation and above	6	20
Residential area	Rural	24	80
Residential area	Urban	6	20
Health care access	PHC’S	11	36.7
	CHC’S	1	3.3
	Private hospital	16	53.3
	District hospital	2	6.7
Wife’s employment status	Employee	1	3.3
Wife’s employment status	Unemployee	29	96.7
Number of children	1	0	0
	2	16	53.3
	3	10	33.3
	4 or above	4	13.3

(n=30)

Figure 1–Frequency and percentage distribution of participants according to type of family.

Figure 1 shows that most of the participants belong to joint family (73.3%) and 20% belong to nuclear family and a 6.7% are belong to the extended type of family.

(n=30)

Figure 2–Frequency and percentage distribution of the participants according to occupation

Figure 2 shows that a significant number of husbands (56.7%) are self employed, 23.3% are coolie workers and 20% are working in private sector which is not negligible.

(n=30)

Figure 3–Frequency and percentage distribution of the participants according to monthly income.

Figure 3 shows that about 40% participants are having a monthly income of less than 3000 while 30% are having a monthly income of between 3000 and 5000, 16.7% are having a monthly income between 5000 and 10000 and those who having above 10000 is about 13.3% which is not negligible.

(n=30)

Figure 4–Frequency and percentage distribution of participants according to transportation facility.

Figure 4 shows that about 56.7% participants are using bike as the transportation facility while 23.3% are using private buses, 13.3% are using car and 6.7% are using private taxi which are not negligible.

(n=30)

Figure 5–Frequency and percentage distribution of the participants according to age of last child.

Figure 5 shows that a significant number of husbands (56.7%) are having the last child aged between 1-3 years and 23.3% are having the last child aged between 3-5 years. The number of husbands those with the last child aged between 5 to 7 years and also greater than 7 years are equally distributed and it is 10%.

(n=30)

Figure 6–Frequency and percentage distribution of participants according to sex of last child.

Figure 6 shows that most of the participant’s last child was a female baby (60%) and 40% were male babies.

Section II: Analysis of extent of male participation in maternal and child health care

Assessment of extent of male involvement in maternal and child health care among the husbands of women consulting gynaecological department of selected hospitals and reason for non participation by using structured questionnaire.

Table 2-Frequency and percentage distribution of participants according to extent of involvement in maternal and child health care by using structured questionnaire (n=30)

Extent of involvement in MCHC	Frequency (f)	(%)
Good	21	70
Average	9	30

Table no.2 shows that 70% of husbands of postnatal women were showing good involvement in maternal and child health care, remaining 30% having average extent. Out of this 9 participants (30%) were included in the average category, 6 participants are not giving any homecare to newborn because of unfamiliarity in handling the baby and busy with their work, and 3 participants were hesitating to take immunization because of misperceptions on immunization.

Section III: Assess various care provided by husbands of women consulting gynaecological department of the hospital in maternal and child health care by using checklist

Assessment of various types of postnatal mother and newborn care provided by males using checklist.

(n=30)

Figure 7–Frequency and percentage distribution of participants according to various care provided

Figure 7 shows that 50% of the study participants are providing average care to baby, 26.6% providing negligible care. Only 23.3% males are actively participating in maternal and newborn care.

Section IV: Association between the extent of male involvement in maternal and child health care among the husbands of women consulting gynaecological department of the hospital with selected socio demographic variables.

Table 3-Association between the extent of male involvement in maternal and child health care among the husbands of women consulting gynaecological department of the hospital with selected socio demographic variables such as age in years, educational status, residing area, religion, type of family, occupation, monthly income, transportation facility, health care access, wife’s employment status, number of children, age of last child and sex of last child. (n=30)

Variables	Category		df	Chi-square value	P value
Variables	Good	Average	df	Chi-square value	P value
Age in years
25-30	6	2	3	3.479	0.323
30-35	5	4
35-40	9	2
40-45	1	1
Educational status
Primary	11	2	2	2.674	0.262
Secondary	7	4
Graduation And above	3	3
Residing area
Rural	15	9	1	1.676	0.195
Urban	6	0
Religion
Hindu	2	0	1	0.025	0.874
Muslim	19	9
Types of family
Nuclear	3	3	2	7.27	0.0263 ⃰
Joint	18	4
Extended	0	2
Occupation
Private sector Employee	4	2	2	0.453	0.797
Coolie	4	2
Self Employee	14	4
Monthly income
<3000	7	5	3	2.775	0.427
3000-5000	4	0
5000-10000	6	3
>10000	4	1
Transportation facility
Bus	6	1	3	2.666	0.446
Car	2	2
Bike	11	6
Taxi	2	0
Health care access
PHC’S	5	6	3	5.582	0.133
CHC’S	1	0
Private hospital	12	3
District hospital	3	0
Wife’s employment status
Employee	1	0	1	0.020	0.887
Unemployee	20	9
Number of children
2	11	5	2	0.058	0.971
3	7	3
4 or above	3	1
Age of last child
1-3	15	3	3	5.049	0.168
3-5	4	3
5-7	2	0
>7	1	2
Sex of last child
Male	9	3	1	0.156	0.692
Female	11	7

*significance at 0.05 level