Market Excel, a research company in India, generously made their panel available to Untold Research in order to conduct a survey on the impact of COVID-19. Immediately, Untold Research jumped at this opportunity to measure the impact COVID-19 has had on access to health services including child immunization, abortion and other vital reproductive health services as well as public opinion on expanding abortion access in India. Please note, due to the nature of panel research, the findings are not reflective of India’s entire population.
Untold Research is making this research available for free download here. Please feel free to use and share at will! If you have any questions about this research, please do not hesitate to reach out to Kate Vasiloff at kate@untoldresearch.com.
PROPER PREGNANCY CARE
In India, three in five (60%) of women ages 18-49 have been pregnant at least one in their lives, the majority of which resulted in live births (97%), though miscarriages (18%) and still births (10%) have occurred.
For proper antenatal, delivery, and postnatal pregnancy care, the World Health Organization recommends a minimum of eight visits to a physician during the course of a pregnancy, delivery in a health care facility and remain there for at least 24 hours, and see a physician at least three times over the next six weeks.
With public transportation closed, strict containment rules enforced, and many health care facilities closed to any non-COVID-19 needs, access to needed pregnancy care has been restricted for women throughout India.
LACK OF ACCESS TO IMPORTANT PREGNANCY AND DELIVERY CARE
During COVID-19, more than one in seven women were unable to visit a health care facility during (15%) or after (15%) her pregnancy, most often because they were afraid of contracting it, themselves (28%).
One in eight women (12%) were unable to deliver their baby in a health facility, three in ten of whom didn’t even try because they knew the health facilities are too busy with COVID-19 (29%) or because they did not want to contract it (29%) and nearly as many cite physical barriers, such as lack of transportation (28%) or police barricades (28%).
CHILD IMMUNIZATIONS
Going beyond care needed before and after pregnancy, children, particularly newborns, require a suite of immunizations. According to the Indian Academy of Pediatrics Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Immunization Practices, babies should receive 20 different immunizations by the time they are six months old and another dozen over the next ten years.
Again, due to overcrowded health care facilities, nearly three in ten (28%) women say they were unable to vaccinate their child, particularly those in Karnataka (49%) and Telangana (37%).
METHODOLOGY
Untold Research conducted this non-probabilistic online survey between July 3 and August 8, 2020, among 2,776 women ages 18-49 across India. Due to the limitations of the sample, respondents all have, at minimum, completed higher secondary school, belong to households earning at least 30,001 rupees, and likely live in urban areas. Therefore, when terms like “in India,” “throughout the country,” or “among women” are used, know this means within the universe of this survey and does not reflect a true representation of all women throughout the country.