This study examines the relationship between religious affiliation and utilisation of maternal health care
services using 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey data. The outcome variable is utilisation of
maternal health care service measured by antenatal care and place of delivery. The explanatory
variables were religion and three purposively selected social determinants of health, namely the social
gradient, work condition and social exclusion. The chi-square test and multinomial logistic regression
were applied. Result show that 50.7% had the recommended 4 or more antenatal care visits; 23.4%
and 13.5% respectively utilise public and private sector facilities for their most recent child delivery.
The relative risk of having 4 or more antenatal visits reduce by a factor of 0.7863 for Muslim women
(p<0.05), and increase by a factor of 5.3806 for women in higher social ladder (p<0.01). Religion
should be integrated into the social determinants of health framework.