Mothers’ health-seeking behaviour and infant and child mortality in Bangladesh

Reproductive health care is being promoted as a way to address a range of women’s health needs as well as improve the quality of services provided for current family planning users. By reducing ill health and premature deaths, reproductive health care is considered a worthy investment in its own right. It also may encourage more women to adopt family planning and thereby lower fertility rates. Women in developing countries face a number of special health risks associated with sexuality and childbearing. According to the World Bank (1993), about one third of the total disease burden that women face is linked to pregnancy, childbirth, abortion and various reproductive tract disorders. Women are more susceptible to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) including HIV than men (Aitken and Reichenbach, 1994) and can pass these on to their unborn children.