Women's time: a factor in the use of child survival technologies?

Time allocation studies show that women in developing countriesface severe time constraints. However, such studies give a lessclear picture of the time women spend on health and child carein the home and utilization of health services because theseare primarily sporadic, not daily, activities. Reporting timespent by women on illness or health care utilization as a dailyaverage masks the true cost of periodically losing half of aday or more of work time. Almost no direct empirical data have been gathered on the timecosts to women of breastfeeding, immunizations, ORT, or growthmonitoring, nor on whether time costs are an important determinantof utilization of these technologies. Specific research designedaround the introduction of child survival projects, plus theinclusion of appropriate measures in the evaluations of ongoingprojects, could fill this gap. Even without further research,recognition of the time constraints faced by low-income mothersin conjunction with lessons learned from successful growth monitoringand immunization projects suggests that outreach efforts maybe an important key to increasing utilization of child survivaltechnologies.