Utilization of maternal care in rural HeBei Province, the People's Republic of China: individual and structural characteristics

Purpose: To study the effect of individual's socio-economic characteristics and the structure of the health services in the village on utilization of maternal care in rural HeBei, the People's Republic of China (PRC). Data: Data were collected from 4273 women who gave birth to one child at least, living in a stratified sample of 288 villages in HeBei Province. Findings: 54.8% of the women had at least one pre-natal care visit, 27.5% gave birth in a health care facility, and 18.1% had post-natal check-up. Utilization was inversely related to age and parity and positively to education. Occupation was related to use of pre- and post-natal services, but not to home birth. Per-capita income and living arrangement are not related to utilization. MCH worker in the village promote pre- and post-natal care, but also home delivery. Village doctors promote pre-natal care and hospital delivery but do not promote post-natal check-up. Women tend to avoid the maternal services in the township health centers but some are ready to travel to city hospitals for delivery and post-natal care. Conclusions: Health education programs regarding the importance of all three maternal care services are clearly needed. These programs should address not only women of child bearing age but also care providers, MCH workers in particular. Township health center should reach-out and motivate women to use their accessible services. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.