Abstract:

The maternal autonomy was measured by the level of participation in household decisions according to the BDHS 2011 scale. The nutritional status of the children was evaluated through measuring height and weight of the children and plotting it in CDC growth reference chart. The study was a cross sectional study which took place in Manikganj district of Bangladesh, on 260 married mothers who have at least one child aged between 1 to 3 years. Our estimation results show that, mother’s level of participation in household decisions found to have significant impact on child’s nutritional outcome, especially in terms of height. Other factors such as, age gap with the husband more than 5 years, early marriage and adolescent pregnancy found to decrease the maternal autonomy condition significantly. On the other hand mother’s living in the single family, with better education and who have their personal income are significantly more autonomous. They also found to be less prone to have stunted children.

Keywords: Maternal autonomy, child nutritional status, rural

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