title: Unauthorised pregnancies and use of maternity care in rural China.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  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.
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland. reija.klemetti@thl.fi
authors.forename: Reija
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Klemetti
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Regushevskaya
authors.forename: Wei-Hong
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Zhuochun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Elina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hemminki
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008427:Maternal Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012424:Rural Population; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult