REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE SEEKING BEHAVIOR OF FEMALE STREET DWELLERS OF DHAKA METROPOLITAN, BANGLADESH

Abstract

This study was conducted on female street dwellers, between the ages of 15 to 49 years, living in New Market Thana area of Dhaka City, to understand their health care seeking behavior and to examine the factors that affect their health care seeking behavior. Following survey research design, data were collected purposively from 110 females by administering an interview schedule. Findings indicate that most of the female street dwellers were married off before candling their eighteenth birthday, which results in early childbearing. Majority of them did not know about the utility of modern contraceptives, therefore, the prevalence of contraceptive use was significantly low. The burden of household chores and intimate partner violence were the commonplace incidences among the women during their pregnancies. However, early marriage, lack of education and insecured income were evidently the most important factors that reduced the female street dwellers’ possibility to seek and avail reproductive health care, especially, antenatal and postnatal care, in Bangladesh.