Bargaining Power Within Couples and Use of Prenatal and Delivery Care in Indonesia

• Published in: Studies in family planning 2001-06, Vol.32 (2), p.130-146
• Main Authors: Beegle, Kathleen, Frankenberg, Elizabeth, Thomas, Duncan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Bargaining; Birth; Childbirth; Children; Decision Making; Delivery (Childbirth); Delivery, Obstetric - methods; Delivery, Obstetric - utilization; Economic resources; Educational Status; Family Power; Fathers; Female; Health; Health aspects; Health care; Health conditions; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Households; Humans; Husband and wife; Husband-wife relations; Husbands; Income; Indonesia; Internal-External Control; Male; Marital Relations; Marriage - psychology; Maternal and infant welfare; Medical Decision Making; Middle Aged; Midwifery; Mortality; Negotiating - psychology; Ownership - statistics & numerical data; Patient Acceptance of Health Care - psychology; Patient Acceptance of Health Care - statistics & numerical data; Personal finance; Power (Psychology); Power relationships; Pregnancy; Prenatal Care; Prenatal Care - utilization; Reproductive health; Residence Characteristics - statistics & numerical data; Sexual Reproduction; Social aspects; Social Class; Social classes; Social Status; Spouses; Spouses - psychology; Statistical analysis; Studies; Surveys and Questionnaires; Wives; Women; Women's Rights; Womens health; Womens Health Care
• ISSN: 0039-3665; 1728-4465
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1728-4465.2001.00130.x

Indonesian women's power relative to that of their husbands is examined to determine how it affects use of prenatal and delivery care. Holding household resources constant, a woman's control over economic resources affects the couple's decisionmaking. Compared with a woman with no assets that she perceives as being her own, a woman with some share of household assets influences reproductive health decisions. Evidence suggests that her influence on service use also varies if a woman is better educated than her husband, comes from a background of higher social status than her husband's, or if her father is better educated than her father-in-law. Therefore, both economic and social dimensions of the distribution of power between spouses influence use of services, and conceptualizing power as multidimensional is useful for understanding couples' behavior.