The use of skilled birth attendant at delivery in rural Myanmar : a study of Thanlyin township

Abstract

The use of skilled birth attendant (SBA) is an important issue since it has been set as an indicator for the MDG5 and the SDG3, and the target level in the use of skilled birth attendants has not been reached. In addition, there is persistent disparity between developed and developing countries and rural and urban areas, as well. Thus, this study aimed to explore the level of using skilled birth attendants and the factors associated with using SBA at delivery in one selected rural area in Myanmar. The study was community-based which employed data collected from the rural areas of Thanlyin Township and the sample included 191 mothers who had at least one child, the last delivery was within one year and those who had registered with the immunization program. The study found that 76.4 percent of the sample used skilled birth attendants at delivery and the association between the sociocultural factors, economic accessibility factors, physical accessibility factors were not significantly related with using skilled birth attendant. Only using skilled personnel at antenatal care for the last child was significantly associated with the use of skilled birth attendant in the delivery of the last child. The result of this study revealed that the percentage of using SBA in rural Thanlyin Township was higher than the average level of other rural areas at the national level since only 63 percent could use SBA but it was still lower than that of the urban areas where 89.6 percent could use the SBA. Therefore, the result of the study suggested that program intervention to encourage pregnant women to use SBA at antenatal care and delivery in rural area is still needed in order to ensure that all births are assisted by skilled health personnel. In addition, further study is needed to address those variables that were not considered by this study.