Understanding High Mortality among Private Facility Births in Rural Uttar Pradesh

With Nikhil Srivastav, Lovey Pant, and Diane Coffey

In the last 15 years, there has been a large increase in facility births and a large decline in home births across India. In Uttar Pradesh, increases in facility birth have led to puzzlingly little decline in neonatal mortality. This paper investigates the role of private facilities in providing care at birth to rural residents of UP. Approximately one in five births of rural UP residents takes place in a private facility. These births experience a stunningly high neonatal mortality rate of 53 deaths per 1,000, compared to 32 among births in public facilities, and 40 among home births. This research seeks to understand why mortality rates are higher in private facilities than public facilities.