Abstract:
Background: Every year, approximately 536,000 maternal deaths occur in the world due
to pregnancy related complications; of which over 95% occur in sub-Saharan Africa and
Asia. One explanation for poor health outcomes among women in these countries
including Ethiopia is the low utilization of ANC & delivery care services by a large
proportion of women.
Objective: This study was aimed to assess factors influencing utilization of antenatal and
delivery care services in Burji special woreda, SNNPR, Ethiopia.
Methods: A community-based cross sectional study that used both quantitative and
qualitative methods of data collection was conducted in Burji special woreda from March
1-30, 2011. The study included 1 urban and 8 rural kebeles with a total sample size of
773 respondents that were selected by multistage (two stage) sampling and purposive
sampling was used to select 40 discussants (men and women) for four FGDs.
Quantitative data was edited, coded and entered in to SPSS version 16 by which also
analysis was done. For qualitative, data was analyzed manually.
Results: The study revealed that the proportion of women who received ANC was
55.6%. Only 16.4% mothers delivered at health institution and only 15 % of total
delivery was attended by skilled birth attendants. Residence (AOR=4.657; 95%
CI=1.937, 11.198), monthly income and maternal education were major determinants of
ANC service utilization and residence (AOR=8.061; 95% CI=4.145, 15.675), maternal
education and ANC attendance (AOR=0. 199; 95% CI=0.108, 0.365) were determinants
for delivery care service utilization after adjusting for other variables. The findings were
also supported by FGD results where economic constraints, transport problems and
inaccessibility of health facilities were important factors for low utilization of maternal
health care services.
Conclusion: This study confirmed that the proportion of ANC and delivery care services
users was very low. Economical, health facility related and socio-demographic factors
were the most frequently identified contributors to the low maternal health care services
utilization. More effort should be made to improve formal education for mothers & girls,
boost accessibility to and strengthening maternal health care service
