Maternal Empowerment and Its Relationship to Children's Health and Survival

Purpose: Nearly 11 million children under the age of 5 die in the world every year, well over 1,200 every hour, most from easily preventable or treatable causes (UNDP, 2002). Literature suggests that maternal empowerment and maternal knowledge, attitude and practices on children's health directly increase child's health and survival of especially those under the age of five. However, accessibility of health care services has final say. Very few studies were done in Azerbaijan to explore this issue that targets three of the eight Millennium Development Goals. In this paper, we answer the following question: What is the relationship between maternal empowerment and child's health and survival? What is the role of mother's knowledge, attitude, and practices in the relationship between maternal empowerment and child's health and survival? What impact does access to health services have on this relationship? Methods: Nationally representative sample of 8,444 women between the ages of 15 and 49 from one country, Azerbaijan was utilized to understand how maternal empowerment contributes to children's health and survival. The lists of variables were selected based on previous studies done by Eswaran (2002), Becker, Nathanson, Drachman, & Kirscht (1977) and Orubuloye & Caldwell (1975). Univariate, bivariate and multiple and logistic regression analysis were conducted in STATA software. Results: Maternal empowerment directly and indirectly related to child mortality. Two indicators of maternal empowerment (control over the sexual life and education), have direct impact on child mortality. Some effects go through maternal health knowledge, attitude, and practices, particularly through mother's child nutrition practices. Furthermore, comparing to the capital city in some regions child mortality is much higher. Maternal empowerment is also positively associated with child's overweight. No relationship was found between maternal empowerment and child's anemia status. The limitation of this study is the inability to test the moderating effect of “access to the health services” as the variable has created multicollinearity and did not fit to the model. Implications: Mother's justification of sexual intercourse with husband even when it is dangerous for her health outcomes is an extreme sign of disempowerment, which directly affects child survival as well. Since we found mother's education to have negative relationship with child mortality, this study implies that Azerbaijani government should increase women's access to education, especially in the regions.