Barriers to increasing hospital birth rates in rural Shanxi Province, China

Exploring women's perspectives of access to care during pregnancy and childbirth: A qualitative study from rural Papua New Guinea

“…Choosing to give birth at home may relate to a previous experience in which the woman experienced a quick, straightforward labour and childbirth (Gao et al, 2010;Some et al, 2011). The choice may be due to the need to care for other children and need to complete household chores (Beegle et al, 2001).…”

“…Both of these findings were mentioned by women in our study. In terms of convenience, traditional birth attendants in some settings may be preferable because of their availability (Gao et al, 2010;Titaley et al, 2010), affordability (Sychareun et al, 2012) and because their presence allows for traditional customs and practices to be followed (Some et al, 2011;Ebuehi and Akintujoye, 2012).…”

“…While studies from other countries mention health facility costs, including delivery fees and medicines, in addition to transport fees as a deterrent to women attending for a supervised birth, women also mentioned that a village birth was more favourable because of the lower cost as well as the convenience of being in the home (Gao et al, 2010).…”

Barriers to Hospital Deliveries among Ethnic Minority Women with Religious Beliefs in China: A Descriptive Study Using Interviews and Survey Data

“…Although home births could be safe, hospital delivery is advocated in most countries as obstetric emergencies can be managed more efficiently [3]. Consequently, hospital delivery is recognized as an effective strategy in reducing maternal and perinatal mortality, and improving the health and well-being of the mothers and newborns [4,5].…”

“…The Chinese government began to encourage hospital delivery from July 1995 [3], with the safe motherhood initiative in 40 of the poorest counties supported by the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in 1999 [6]. Since 2000, China began to perform “Reducing maternal mortality and eliminating newborn tetanus” in the rural counties of 12 central and western provinces, gradually extended it to 22 provinces in 2011, covering around 830 million population [7].…”