Mothers' and Midwives' Experiences of Maternal and Child Health Services during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Banggai, Indonesia: A Qualitative Study.

Background: Maternal and child health (MCH) services have been affected by the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in all countries, including Indonesia. Information regarding the impact of COVID-19 on MCH service access and provision is limited, particularly in the context of rural Indonesian communities. This study aimed to explore the experiences of Indonesian mothers and midwives from a rural regency regarding MCH services delivery during the pandemic.

Methods: This study was a sub-study of a pre-existing cohort study conducted in four sub-districts in Banggai, Indonesia, as the qualitative research. This study was conducted from November 2020 to April 2021, involving 21 mothers and six midwives. We selected the participants using snowball sampling. In-depth interviews were conducted in Bahasa. The study used both deductive and inductive approaches for analysis. Data analysis was performed using NVivo v.12.

Results: The study identified three themes and eight sub-themes from the analysis incorporating the midwives' and mothers' data. The themes included health service change, perceived barriers to service delivery, and family impact. This study highlights health service changes due to the pandemic, such as relocating the MCH services. Mothers perceived barriers to accessing health services, including distance reasons and fear of COVID-19. Only the shortages of staff affected the midwives in providing optimal services.

Conclusion: The pandemic triggered health service changes and caused some barriers to service delivery. This study recommends that the local government and stakeholders should pay more attention to the health service changes according to the mothers' experiences and address barriers to optimize access to MCH services during the pandemic.