Social networks, normative influence and health delivery in rural Bangladesh

This paper examines the association of social networks with the experience of neonatal death and the type of assistance that a woman obtains at childbirth in rural Bangladesh. Data were collected by interviewing 694 women from seven villages using a structured questionnaire. From the use of both social network analysis and statistical methods, we find that the experience of neonatal death and the type of assistance that a woman gets at childbirth are associated with the characteristics of their social networks along with a set of socioeconomic factors that are usually considered to be important. The higher the degree of centrality of a woman in her social network, the less likely it is that she will experience neonatal death, and…