Spending on maternity care [Antenatal Care (ANC), Delivery and Postnatal Care (PNC)] is gaining new records every day in public and private health sectors of India. It is often cited as the strongest barrier in utilizing quality care during pregnancy and childbirth. The objectives of this paper were, first, to estimate the extent of mean maternity spending by source of provider and socio-economic and demographic characteristics; second, to investigate the factors associated with public and private maternity spending using the unit-level data from the 75^th round (2017-18) of the National Sample Survey Organization. The Heckman selection model was applied to examine the factors explaining component-wise public and private maternity spending in India. Overall, the component-wise mean maternity spending was sky-rocketing in the private health provider compared with the public health provider. The results reveal that average expenditure incurred on delivery, ANC and PNC at a private health facility were over six, four and three times higher than public health facility, respectively. Multivariate analyses confirmed that age group, education, social and wealth status, religion, health insurance and place and region of residence emerged as responsible factors explaining component-wise public and private maternity spending. Findings from this study suggest the importance of government spending on the public health sector to magnify the accessibility and affordability of quality maternity care that may curtail the economic distress of households to obtain utmost care in private health facilities in India, irrespective of their socio-economic status.