Tran Khanh Toan^1,, Bo Eriksson², Pham Nhat An³, Nguyen Thi Kim Chuc¹, Goran Bondjers⁴, Karin Gottvall⁵

Choices for delivery care are made based on the available resources and influence health outcomes of women and their children. The aim of the paper is to study utilization and preference for delivery care and related factors in one urban and one rural area of northern Vietnam. Two cohorts of pregnant women were carried out in DodaLab and FilaBavi Health and Demographic Surveillance Sites (HDSS) in Hanoi, Vietnam from April 2008 to December 2009. Together, 2515 pregnant women were identified and followed until delivery through quarterly household interviews using structured questionnaires. Almost all women delivered at health care facilities. Most of the rural women gave birth at primary health care facilities (88.5%) while urban women primarily used secondary and tertiary hospitals (93.6%). Caesarean section (CS) was used for 38.5% of births in the urban area and 12.4% in the rural. Giving birth in hospitals and CS were more common among highly educated women, employed women, women living in households or communities with good economic conditions, and women expected to give birth to a son. Technology preference in delivery care was associated with better socioeconomic conditions and expecting a boy. Improving the quality and reputation of primary health care facilities, informing women about CS risks and monitoring indications of CS are important policy issues.

Technology preference, delivery care utilization, hospital delivery, caesarean section, rural and urban, Vietnam