| Summary: | Maternal mortality and morbidity continues to be high despite the existence of national programs for improving maternal and child health in India. Though urban India has a relatively strong health and nutrition infrastructure - there is marked inequitable distribution of service availability and utilization between the rich and poor, between the settled urban population and the marginalized slum dwellers. So the present study intends to assess the utilization of maternal health services by women residing in urban slum areas of district Mohali, Punjab. A cross – sectional descriptive study was carried out and a total of 164 respondents were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire by door to door survey. As many as 77% of the respondents received Antenatal care, out of which 59% completed 3 visits of ANC .23% of the women did not receive even 1 ANC check up. 49% women in the slums delivered their child at home,81% of these deliveries were conducted by trained dai while 19% of the women delivered their child without any SBA. The major reason for not opting for an institutional delivery as stated by 53% of women was that, “they did not feel it necessary” while 20% blamed the non cooperative hospital staff. About 89% of the women eligible for JSY did not receive any Cash Incentives. 40% women revealed that it was due to the non filling of JSY card by ANM’s that they were not able to avail monetary benefits under the scheme. Postnatal care was not sought by 77% of the women. Only 57% of the child received all vaccinations up to their present age. The present study found that poor sense of need and on top of it, the providers poor attitude were the main reasons for not utilizing health care facilities.
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