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Background: The Midwife-led maternity services have been implemented in China in response to the high rates of primiparous women and Caesarean Sections (CS) which may be related to China's one-child policy. However, few studies in China have been reported on the effectiveness of Midwife-led Care at Delivery (MCD) and the Continuity of Midwife-led Care (CMC) on postpartum wellbeing and other clinical outcomes. Therefore, evidence-based clinical validation is needed to develop an optimal maternity service for childbearing women in China., Methods: A concurrent cohort study design was conducted with 1730 pregnant women recruited from 9 hospitals in Shanghai. Among the 1730 participants at baseline, 1568 participants completed the follow-up questionnaire, with a follow-up rate of 90.6%., Results: Compared with the routine Obstetrician-led Maternity Care (OMC), Midwife-led Care at Delivery (MCD) was associated with CS rate (OR were 0.16; 95%CI: 0.11 to 0.25) and a higher total score of postpartum wellbeing (βwere 2.70; 95%CI: 0.70 to 4.70) when adjusting for the baseline differences and other confounders during delivery or postpartum period. Moreover, continuity of Midwife-led Care (CMC) was associated with CS rate (OR were 0.30; 95%CI: 0.23 to 0.41), as well as increased rate of breastfeeding within the first 24 h (OR were 2.49; 95% CI: 1.47 to 4.23), higher postpartum satisfaction (β = 4.52; 95% CI: 1.60 to 12.68), lower anxiety (βwere 0.66; 95% CI: 0.16 to 1.17), increased self-control (βwere 0.39; 95% CI: 0.02 to 0.76) and a higher total score of postpartum wellbeing (βwere 3.14; 95% CI: 1.54 to 4.75)., Conclusion: CMC is the optimal service for low-risk primiparous women under China's one-child policy, and is worthwhile for a general implementation across China.

To report on the design and basic outcomes of three interventions aimed at improving the use and quality of maternity care in rural China: financial interventions, training in clinical skills, and training in health education. Community-based cluster randomized trials were carried out in one central and two western provinces between 2007 and 2009: (1) financial interventions covered part of women's costs for prenatal and postnatal care, (2) training of midwives in clinical skills was given by local maternity care experts in two- or three-group training courses, (3) health education training for midwives and village doctors were given by local experts in health education in two- or three-group training courses. A survey was conducted in a stratified random sample of women who had been pregnant in the study period. 73% of women (n = 3,673) were interviewed within 1-10 months of giving birth. Outcomes were compared by the different intervention and control groups. Adjusted odds ratios were calculated by logistic regression to adjust for varying maternal characteristics. Most of the differences found between the groups were small and some varied between provinces. The financial intervention did not influence the number of visits, but was associated with increased caesarean sections and a decrease in many ultrasound tests. The clinical intervention influenced some indicators of care content. There was no consistent finding for the health education intervention. Financial and training interventions have the potential to improve maternity care, but better implementation is required. Unintended consequences, including overuse of technology, are possible.

Background: The conceptualization and measurement of socio-economic status (SES) is difficult in developing settings. In the absence of SES indices for women in rural China, we constructed SES indices for prenatal care research, and examined their relation to perinatal care and outcomes., Methods: This study utilized data of 4364 rural women having recently given birth, collected by a cross-sectional survey in three rural Chinese provinces in 2007. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to construct the SES indices and multilevel logistic regression was use to relate the indices to low birthweight, short exclusive breastfeeding (≤4 months), childbirth at the county or higher level health facility, caesarean section, inadequate prenatal care and no postnatal care., Results: Three separate SES indices (wealth, occupational and educational indices) were obtained from the PCA analysis, capturing maternal, paternal and household SES characteristics. After adjusting for individual level factors, village and township wealth, higher levels of the indices were inversely associated with inadequate prenatal care. Higher occupational status was positively associated with short exclusive breastfeeding and childbirth at the county or higher level health facility, but inversely associated with no postnatal care. Higher educational status was positively associated with no postnatal care., Conclusion: Three SES indices (wealth, occupational and educational) were obtained from this study for prenatal care research. The indices gave mostly varying results on their associations with perinatal care and outcomes, indicating that SES measures may be outcome-specific.

To examine changes and equity in use of maternal care in different types of rural and urban areas in China from the early 1990s to early 2000s. Data were drawn from three National Health Household Interview Surveys conducted in 1993, 1998, and 2003. Analysis was based on married women aged between 15 and 49 who had live births within the 24 months prior to the survey. Nationally, the proportion of women receiving their first pre-natal visit within 12 weeks of gestation and the hospital delivery rate increased rapidly from 20.56 and 37.61% in the early 1990s to 52.60 and 74.02% in the early 2000s, respectively, while the proportion of women receiving at least one post-natal care visit dropped slightly from 56.46 to 54.12% in the same time period. There were large disparities in use of maternal care between urban and rural areas and among different sized cities and rural areas with different levels of socio-economic development. But the disparities narrowed over time, especially among different types of rural areas. The proportion of delivery out of hospital attended by trained staff in rural areas decreased considerably from 68.01% in 1991-1993 to 51.57% in 2001-2003. Maternal care utilization made remarkable progress in the study period, and the gap between rural and urban areas and among different classes of cities and rural areas significantly narrowed. This was probably due to both socio-economic development and targeted investments in improving health services. However, significant gaps remained, requiring attention.

Objectives: To describe the use of maternity care in rural China by the legal status of the pregnancy., Methods: Cross-sectional survey wherein information was obtained about 2576 women who gave birth in 2006. Logistic regression was used to compare women having an unauthorised pregnancy with those having an authorised second birth, adjusting for confounding factors., Results: Almost all respondents had antenatal care and most deliveries occurred in hospitals. Women with unauthorised pregnancies were significantly less likely to have had maternity care, particularly prenatal care, postnatal care, to have been hospitalised during pregnancy, and to have been reimbursed for hospital delivery costs than women with an authorised second birth. They were also more likely to have been hospitalised for seven or more days after delivery. Primiparous women used maternity care services and received financial support more often than women with an authorised second birth. Among the women with an unauthorised pregnancy an important reason for not using hospital care during pregnancy or delivery was financial constraint., Conclusions: Women with unauthorised pregnancies use less maternity care, although pregnancy in such circumstances may adversely impact their health. Primiparous women benefit from more financial support than multiparous women.

Background: A community-based randomized control prenatal care trial was performed in a rural county of China during 2000-2003. The purpose of this paper is to describe the trial implementation and the impact of the trial on the utilization of prenatal care and perinatal outcomes., Materials and Methods: In the study county, 10 townships (from a total of 55) were each paired with a control (20 study townships in total), with the criteria for pairing being the township's socioeconomic development, perinatal health, and maternal care utilization and provision. One of each township pair was randomly allocated to the intervention or control groups. The trial interventions were: 1) training township hospital midwives and instructing them in how to provide systematic maternal care, 2) informing women in the community of the importance of prenatal care, 3) if needed, providing basic medical instruments to the hospitals. A variety of data sources were used to describe the trial implementation (observations, group discussions, field notes, survey to women). The data on pregnancy and perinatal outcomes were from the original hand-written work-records in the village family planning centers of the study townships., Results: Implementation of the intervention was deficient. The factors hindering the trial implementation included poor coordination between midwives and family planning officers, broader policy changes implemented by the provincial government during the trial, the decentralization of county governance, and the lack of government funding for maternal care. There was only little difference in the use of maternal care, in women's opinions related to maternal care or content of prenatal care, and no difference in the perinatal outcomes between the intervention and control townships., Conclusions: A community based randomized controlled trial could not be fully carried out in rural China as planned due to the changing political landscape, the complexity of the socio-economic situation and a lengthy planning stage. The study could not answer if perinatal outcomes could be improved by increased use of prenatal care., Trial Registration: NCT 01054235.

Background: Studies on prenatal care in China have focused on the timing and frequency of prenatal care and relatively little information can be found on how maternal care has been organized and funded or on the actual content of the visits, especially in the less developed rural areas. This study explored maternal care in a rural county from Anhui province in terms of care organization, provision and utilization., Methods: A total of 699 mothers of infants under one year of age were interviewed with structured questionnaires; the county health bureau officials and managers of township hospitals (n = 10) and county level hospitals (n = 2) were interviewed; the process of the maternal care services was observed by the researchers. In addition, statistics from the local government were used., Results: The county level hospitals were well staffed and equipped and served as a referral centre for women with a high-risk pregnancy. Township hospitals had, on average, 1.7 midwives serving an average population of 15,000 people. Only 10-20% of the current costs in county level hospitals and township hospitals were funded by the local government, and women paid for delivery care. There was no systematic organized prenatal care and referrals were not mandatory. About half of the women had their first prenatal visit before the 13th gestational week, 36% had fewer than 5 prenatal visits, and about 9% had no prenatal visits. A major reason for not having prenatal care visits was that women considered it unnecessary. Most women (87%) gave birth in public health facilities, and the rest in a private clinic or at home. A total of 8% of births were delivered by caesarean section. Very few women had any postnatal visits. About half of the women received the recommended number of prenatal blood pressure and haemoglobin measurements., Conclusion: Delivery care was better provided than both prenatal and postnatal care in the study area. Reliance on user fees gave the hospitals an incentive to put more emphasis on revenue generating activities such as delivery care instead of prenatal and postnatal care.