A study on intranatal care practices in a district of West Bengal.

A study was conducted at Birbhum district of West Bengal among mothers who delivered in last one year to generate area-specific community-based data on the proportion of home deliveries, assistance during conduction of delivery and the intranatal care practices followed in the district. A multistage 40 cluster sampling method was used to study 320 mothers in the district. 37.81% deliveries were conducted at home. About 25% deliveries were conducted by untrained birth attendants, unqualified practitioners or relatives and friends. In 85.13% of home deliveries, DDK was not used. 68.6% home deliveries were conducted on the floor without any clean covering sheet. Though a clean instrument was used to cut the cord in 86.78% of home deliveries, a clean cord tie was used in only 24.89% cases. In 36.36% home deliveries, something was applied on the cord stump. High proportion of deliveries assisted by untrained persons and high magnitude of faulty intranatal care practices observed in the study require urgent and appropriate intervention.