Interpersonal Influence on Beliefs and Behaviors Concerning Childbirth Location in Rural Senegal: Evidence from the Niakhar Social Networks Pilot Survey

John Sandberg, McGill University
Valérie Delaunay, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)
Aldiouma Diallo, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)
Steven Rytina, McGill University

Using unique and innovative social network data, this research models the association between individuals' beliefs and behaviors in a rural Senegalese population concerning the best place to give birth to a child (whether at home or in a maternity clinic) and prior childbirth practices of their network alters and kin. Controlling for aggregate community level rates of maternity clinic usage as well as appropriate individual level variables, we first model beliefs among all respondents concerning the best place to give birth to a child as a function of network alters' and close family members’childbirth experiences, derived by linking network members and kin to existing demographic surveillance data . Next, on the subset of respondents who had previously had children, we examine the association between the location of their births and those of their alters and family members.