Health of a nation is quite often represented by the statistics such as infant death rate and maternal mortality rate. It is indisputable that maternal child health(MCH) is the basis of health of a nation. MCH is also one of the cardinal component of primary health care.
The importance of MCH is conspicuous especially in the developing countries. In Korea, people in the rural communities still have high access barrier to basic health care needs, including MCH services. Access to quality care during pregnancy and delivery seems to be the crucial factor in preventing deaths in women and children.
The beneficial effects of prenatal and postnatal care on the outcome of pregnancy for mother and child, and those of health professional-attended institutional delivery on the health of mother and child have been well documented in many studies. Recognizing these effects, the government of Korea received IBRD loan of $30 million in 1979 for the purpose of constructing 89 rural MCH centers. The construction is complete now and all 89 MCH centers are under operation to improve primary health care for mothers and children in Korea.
However, it has been observed over time that overall performance of public MCH centers is declining. The decline has been attributed partly to low quality services by public MCH centers, poor management by health center managers, competition with for-profit private clinics, and to the development of national health insurance.
This study investigates the utilization by rural communities in Korea of MCH services provided by public sector health centers deemed to be physically and financially accessible to the community but suboptimally used. It seeks also to determine the factors that influence people´s utilizations. This study sets out to discover a desirable from of MCH center among alternative forms of centers, thereby to construct a MCH model.
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