Background and Objectives: Antenatal care (ANC) during pregnancy and skilled delivery attendance (SDA) during delivery are the most key policy concerns for reducing maternal deaths in both urban and rural areas. The main objective of this study is to investigate the urban-rural differences in the utilization of maternal healthcare services in Bangladesh. Methods: The dataset has been extracted from Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey (BDHS), 2014, consisted of a total of 4476 (urban: 1443 and rural: 3033) women aged 15-49 years. Bivariate analysis along with chi-square test has been performed to examine the association between different selected factors of ANC and SDA. Additionally, binary logistic regression has been also applied to investigate the significance of the factors of maternal healthcare for both urban and rural areas based on the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) along with p-value in Bangladesh. Results: The study reveals that the rate of receiving ANC service (urban: 88.10% & rural: 73.90%) and SDA service (urban: 57.50% & rural: 31.50%) by urban mothers is higher than the rural mothers. Logistic regression model demonstrates that women with no education and uneducated husband belonging to poor families are less likely to access ANC services for rural areas compared to urban areas. Also, women with no education and uneducated husband belonging to the poor families are less likely to access SDA services for both areas but women exposure to watching television are more likely to receive SDA service compared to their counterpart for rural areas only. Conclusion: Overall, this study shows that three factors: education, wealth index, and watching television are the most significantly associated factors of ANC and SDA services. Urban mothers receive more ANC and SDA maternal healthcare services than rural mothers as these significant factors affect more in rural areas than urban areas in Bangladesh.
Therefore, this study strongly recommends that Bangladesh Government needs to act deliberately to improve maternal healthcare services in rural areas and should take the necessary steps to make awareness among rural mothers about it.