Sociodemographic characteristics of women giving birth
Between 1998-2017, a total of 40743 women who gave birth were included in the analysis. Table 1 presents the women’s demographic characteristics. Around half of the women were aged 20-29 years, and the proportion of women who were over 30 years old increased from 30.2% in 1998-2002 to 41.8% in 2013-2017. Women’s educational attainment increased over time and 56.3% of them received junior or senior high school education in 2013-2017. In previous waves of the survey, rural women outnumbered urban women, though they almost reached equal in 2013-2017. The proportion of households at the poorest quintile decreased from 31.4% in 1998-2002 to 26.6% in 2013-2017. The proportion of the households in the middle and richer quintiles increased slightly over time. Less than one-third of women had only one child and half of all women had two or three children in 2013-2017. The proportion of women having over four children decreased over time. Homebirth decreased significantly from 61.4% in 1998-2002 to 24.5% in 2013-2017. Women who used private childbirth services increased from 27.2% in 1998-2002 to 39.8% in 2013-2017. The private childbirth services were dominated by private midwives, accounting for 66.5% of services in 1998-2002 and 51.7% in 2013-2017. Those who used public services increased from 11.4% in 1998-2002 to 35.7% in 2013-2017. Public childbirth services were provided mainly by government hospitals. Regional distribution remained relatively stable over time due to sampling weights produced during data collection.