@article{3f6a39d3cab74bc8a533a9270c5e991b,
title = "How Do Women Learn They Are Pregnant? The Introduction of Clinics and Pregnancy Awareness in Nepal",
abstract = "The earlier a woman learns about her pregnancy status, the sooner she can make decisions about her own and infant's health. This paper examines how women learn about their pregnancy status and measures how access to pregnancy tests affects earlier pregnancy knowledge. Using 10 years of individual-level monthly panel data in Nepal, we find that, on average, women learn they are pregnant in their 4.6th month of pregnancy. Living approximately a mile further from a clinic offering pregnancy tests increases the time a woman knows she is pregnant by one week (5 percent increase) and decreases the likelihood of knowing in the first trimester by 4.5 percentage points (16 percent decrease). Women with prior pregnancies experience the most substantial effects of distance within the first two trimesters, while, for women experiencing their first pregnancy, distance does not affect knowledge. These results suggest that, while access to clinics can increase pregnancy awareness for women who recognize pregnancy symptoms, other complementary policies are needed to increase pregnancy awareness of women in their first pregnancy.",
keywords = "Nepal, Pregnancy Testing, Reproductive Health",
author = "Isabel Musse and Rebecca Thornton and Dirgha Ghimire",
note = "We thank the Institute for Social and Environmental Research, Chitwan, Nepal—and especially in memory of our dear friend Krishna Ghimire—and the Inter‐university Consortium for Political and Social Research for providing access to the data and for assistance during this study. We thank seminar participants at the Applied Micro Lunch at the University of Illinois, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, Midwest Economics Association, Economics Graduate Student Conference of Washington University in St. Louis, Health and Society in South Asia Conference—the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Copenhagen. This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD, R01HD32912, R01HD33551). The authors gratefully acknowledge the use of the services and facilities of the PSC at U‐M, funded by an NICHD Center Grant (P2CHD041028). We thank the Institute for Social and Environmental Research, Chitwan, Nepal—and especially in memory of our dear friend Krishna Ghimire—and the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research for providing access to the data and for assistance during this study. We thank seminar participants at the Applied Micro Lunch at the University of Illinois, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, Midwest Economics Association, Economics Graduate Student Conference of Washington University in St. Louis, Health and Society in South Asia Conference—the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Copenhagen. This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD, R01HD32912, R01HD33551). The authors gratefully acknowledge the use of the services and facilities of the PSC at U-M, funded by an NICHD Center Grant (P2CHD041028).",
year = "2022",
month = mar,
doi = "10.1111/sifp.12183",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "53",
pages = "43--59",
journal = "Studies in family planning",
issn = "0039-3665",
publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",
number = "1",
}