The choice of delivery place in Indonesia: Does home residential status matter?

Background: To care for their health needs, women in Indonesia who live with their parents or in-laws frequently lose their independence, including the choice of delivery place.

Aim: The study aimed to analyze the effect of home residential status on the choice of delivery place in Indonesia.

Methods: The study design was a cross-sectional study. The study employed secondary data from 2017 Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS). The research included 15,357 women aged 15-49 with live births in the last five years. Meanwhile, the study used place of delivery as an outcome variable and home residential status as an exposure variable. Moreover, the research employed nine control variables: type of residence, age group, education level, employment status, marital status, parity, wealth status, health insurance, and antenatal care visits-the final analysis using binary logistic regression.

Findings: The result shows that women with home residential status in the alone category were 1.248 times more likely than those in the joint category to choose to give birth to healthcare facilities (AOR 1.248; 95% CI 1.143-1.361). In addition to home residential status, the study also found seven control variables to have a relationship with the choice of place of delivery. The seven control variables were the type of residence, age group, education level, parity, wealth status, health insurance, and antenatal care.

Conclusion: The study concluded that home residential status affects the choice of delivery place in Indonesia.