Efficacy of behavioral interventions to improve maternal health seeking
behavior (MHSB) has been increasingly scrutinized, particularly in developing
countries like Pakistan. The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact the Pakistan
Initiative for Mothers and Newborns (2004-2010) in 22 exposure districts compared to
districts with no intervention. The impact of socioeconomic and demographic
indicators in comparison to that of the intervention is also discussed in this paper.
Data were obtained from the Pakistan Living Standards Measurement Survey
2004-05 and 2012-13.The sample consisted of 54706 women of reproductive age (15-
50 years), from 22 intervention districts, and 72 control districts. Five utilization
oriented indicators of MHSB were investigated; antenatal visits, tetanus toxoid
vaccinations, health facility birth, skilled birth attendance and postnatal care. Using
the Difference in Differences technique, binary logistic regression was used to assess
the impact of PAIMAN relative to socioeconomic and demographic variables.
We find that the PAIMAN intervention had no significant impact on improving
likelihood of women seeking maternal health care. With the exception of prenatal
care, there were no statistically significant differences in the odds of women utilizing
maternal health services in the intervention districts in comparison to the control
districts.