Utilization of services provided by village based ethnic minority midwives in mountainous villages of Vietnam

INTRODUCTION: Since 2011, the Vietnam’s Ministry of Health implemented the ethnic minority midwives (EMMs) scheme in order to increase the utilization of maternal health services by women from ethnic minorities and those living in hard-to-reach mountainous areas. This paper analyzes the utilization of antenatal, delivery, and postpartum care provided by EMMs and reports the key determinants of utilization of EMM services as perceived by service users. METHODS: A structured questionnaire was administered in 2015 to all mothers (n=320) who gave birth to a live-born during a 1-year period in 31 villages which had EMM in two provinces, Dien Bien and Kon Tum. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to examine the association between all potential factors and the use of services provided by EMMs. RESULTS: We found that EMMs provided more antenatal care and postnatal care as compared with delivery services, which corresponded to their job descriptions. The results also showed that utilization of antenatal care provided by EMMs was lower than that of postnatal care. The proportion of those who never heard about EMM was high (24%). Among the mothers who knew about EMM services, 33.4% had antenatal checkups, 20.1% were attended during home deliveries, and 57.3% had postnatal visits by an EMM. Key factors that determined the use of EMM services included knowledge of the location of EMM’s house, being aware about EMMs by health workers, trust in services provided by EMMs, and perception that many others mothers in a village also knew about EMM services. CONCLUSION: EMM seems to be an important mechanism to ensure assistance during home births and postnatal care for ethnic minority groups, who are often resistant to attend health facilities. Building trust and engaging with communities are the key facilitators to increase the utilization of services provided by EMMs. Communication campaigns to raise awareness about EMMs and to promote their services in the village, particularly by other health workers, represent an important strategy to further improve effectiveness of EMM scheme.