Health, 2016, 8, 206-218 Published Online February 2016 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/health http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/health.2016.83024 How to cite this paper: Freyermuth-Enciso, G., Carrasco-Gómez, M. and Romero-Martínez, M. (2016) The Role of Health Inequality in the Maternal Health Services Provided by Public Institutions in Mexico. Health, 8, 206-218. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/health.2016.83024 The Role of Health Inequality in the Maternal Health Services Provided by Public Institutions in Mexico Graciela Freyermuth-Enciso 1 , Mónica Carrasco-Gómez 2 , Martín Romero-Martínez 3 1 Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS) sede SURESTE, San Cristóbal de las Casas, México 2 Cátedras CONACYT/Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social sede SURESTE, San Cristóbal de las Casas, México 3 National Public Health Institute’s Research Center in Evaluations and Surveys, Cuernavaca, México Received 17 December 2015; accepted 2 February 2016; published 5 February 2016 Copyright © 2016 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract This work aims to determine the role of inequality in the provision of maternal health services among five regions in Mexico (northwest, northeast, central, the Mexico City-State of Mexico re- gion and the south). We consider the most important service providers corresponding to the main health institutions in Mexico (IMSS, ISSSTE, SESAS, IMSS-Oportunidades). Therefore, a cross-sec- tional prospective study was conducted to analyze eight intervention packages (Prenatal Care, Syphilis, Influenza, Obstetric Urgent Care, HIV in pregnancy, delivery care, neonatal care and ac- cessibility) offered by the Maternal and Perinatal Health (MPH) program. A quantitative analysis demonstrates low to marginal performance of the MPH program in three regions (South, Mexico City-State of Mexico and the Northwest) and marginal in two other regions (Central and Northeast). Furthermore, four of the intervention packages presented the lowest performance in the South (Prenatal Care, Syphilis, Influenza and Obstetric Urgent Care), as did the average of the total of the MPH packages. The performance of HIV in Pregnancy package was marginal in the Southern and Mexico City-State of Mexico regions and Neonatal Care was low in the Northwest. The assessment of the MPH intervention packages allows us to identify their strengths and weaknesses. This in- formation allows us to identify similarities and differences among the geographical regions in or- der to describe and analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the current system and hence to improve the decision making regarding the Maternal and Perinatal Health Programs in Mexico. The results suggest that a homogenization has taken place in terms of the low quality of the services.