Descrpition The Low Utilization of Maternity Waiting Home Rida Mustasmara1, Muhammad Ardian C.L1, Endyka Erye Frety1 1 Department of Midwifery Education, Faculty of Medicine University Airlangga 60132, Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia Email : rida.mustasmara-2020@fk.unair.ac.id Abstract Background WHO has recommended the Maternity Waiting Home (MWH) as one of the interventions to improve maternity care. Women who do not have access to health facilities because of the constraints posed by distance, they can benefit from living in a Maternity Waiting Home (MWH) and being closer to the facility can manage emergency obstetric complications. However, the facts on the ground that pregnant women and the community do not want to wait for the delivery process at the maternity waiting home, they prefer to wait at home alone if there are signs of labor they choose to come directly to the Public health center. In addition, there are also pregnant women who do not want to go to health facilities, preferring to call a shaman to assist with the delivery process. This study aims to describe the use of maternity waiting homes in an area in Indonesia. This research method is a descriptive survey using a questionnaire on 47 pregnant women respondents. The data is presented in the form of a frequency distribution table for the planned use of the maternity waiting home by pregnant women. The results of this study indicate that only 25.4% of pregnant women respondents plan to use the maternity waiting home and 74.6% do not plan to use the maternity waiting home. Keywords: Pregnant women, Utilization, Maternity waiting home 1. Introduction Indonesia still faces gaps in access to health services and difficulties in reducing the MMR (Maternal Mortality Rate). The 2015 Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS) showed that MMR in Indonesia reached 305 deaths per 100,000 live births (Ministry of Health, 2016). Data on maternal mortality in West Papua Province in 2017 was 218 cases of death or 836 per 100,000 live births and in 2018 there were 184 cases of death or 848 per 100,000 live births (West Papua Health Profile 2018). As for Fakfak Regency, the 2020 Health Profile explains that, in 2019 the number of maternal deaths was 2 cases or 13.59 per 10,000 live births and the number of infant deaths was 9 cases or 6.1 per 1,000 live births (Fakfak Regency Health Profile in 2020). The high maternal mortality rate illustrates the low level of health services for pregnant women and mothers giving birth. Data on delivery services obtained in 2019 amounted to 90.95% of deliveries assisted by health workers in health care facilities of 88.75%. Thus, there are still around 2.2% of deliveries that are assisted by health workers but are not carried out in health care facilities. Utilization of health services according from Notoatmodjo (2012), is the behavior of individuals and groups to perform or seek treatment. The consumer's decision to use or utilize health service facilities is inseparable from the behavior possessed by each individual and the factors that influence it (Notoatmodjo, 2012). There are three theories regarding behavior in health sciences put forward by experts, namely Anderson's (1975) theory of behavioral model of health services utilization, Lawrence Green's (1980) theory of community behavior model and Dever's (1984) theory. regarding the utilization of health services. From the three theories, the framework for the utilization of health services is summarized, namely the birth waiting 183 www.ijrp.org IJRP 2022, 92(1), 183-187; doi:.10.47119/IJRP100921120222704