Health care seeking behaviors regarding maternal care and the associated factors among married women in Naung Cho Township, Myanmar

Abstract

The aim of this study was to find associated factors with maternal health care seeking behaviors in a rural area in Myanmar. Married women who had delivered during the previous 12 months in Naung Cho Township were targeted and were sampled by three-stage sampling. Face-to-face interviews were performed using a structured questionnaire. The Poisson regression was used to find adjusted risk ratios (aRR) of each of two health care seeking behaviors for each of the investigated explanatory variables. Women whose husband had secondary education or above were at less risk of not having regular antenatal care (ANC) than those whose husband had only primary school level education (aRR=0.57, 95%CI: 0.34-0.95). Compared with primigravid women, aRR of not having regular ANC for those with two to four pregnancies was 1.52 (95% CI: 1.13-2.05) and 1.62 (95% CI: 1.11-2.35) for those with five or more pregnancies. Respondents who had secondary education or above and women who had married at age 20 or older showed a significantly lower risk of giving birth without skilled birth attendant (SBA) than those less educated and those who married at a younger age; aRR=0.54 (95% CI: 0.33-0.89) and aRR=0.72 (95% CI: 0.52-0.99), respectively. Own and husband's education, the number of previous pregnancies, and marriage age were found as associated factors of maternal health seeking behaviors. Health education programs about the advantages of regular ANC and the importance of delivery with an SBA should be provided with married women, particularly targeting multigravida women, while improving access to and quality of maternal health care services.

Keywords: Myanmar; antenatal care; birth attendant; health care seeking behaviors; maternal health.