Abstract:
Background: Complications of pregnancy and childbirth are the leading causes of disability
and death among women in the reproductive age (15-49) in developing countries. Access to
good quality care during pregnancy and child birth would prevent 50% to 70% of maternal
deaths and reduce neonatal mortality by 10% to 15%. Utilization of these services is very low
in rural Ethiopia. Antenatal care, delivery care and postnatal care provides an opportunity to
deliver different services which are important in improving maternal survival.
Objective: To assess maternal health care service utilization and determinant factors among
mothers of under one year children.
Methods: A community based cross sectional study that employed quantitative method of
data collection was conducted among 309 mothers of under one children in wonchi woreda,
from March 25th to April 25th, 2014.The study participant was recruited mothers of under one
children from eight kebeles of wonchi woreda using simple random sampling technique. A
structured interviewer administered questionnaire was used to elicit all important
informations from the study participants. Data were analyzed using SPSS for windows
version 16.0. Frequency distributions, cross tabulations, crude and adjusted Odds ratios and
confidence intervals were performed.
Result: Data on antenatal care, delivery care and postnatal care were collected from 302
mothers making a response rate of 97.7%. Three hundred thirty seven (78.5%), 130(43%) and
142(47.1%) of mothers were reported to have received antenatal care at least once,
institutional delivery and postnatal care during their last pregnancy respectively. In
multivariate analysis, mothers with age group 20-34 years and those with lower birth orders
were more likely to use the antenatal care services than their counterparts;(AOR=3.38,95%
CI:1.3, 8.5) and (AOR=3.1,95% CI: 1.7,6.2), respectively. Similarly, parity (AOR= 3.97,
95% CI; (2.74, 5.47), walking distance (AOR=2.26, 95%CI; (1.14, 4.44), and ANC service
use (AOR= 3.97, 95% CI; (2.73, 5.75), were significant predictors of institutional delivery
service use by mothers. Moreover, place of delivery (AOR= 2.84, 95% CI: 1.14, 8.13) and
parity (AOR=1.84, 95% CI: 1.35, 2, 50) were among the factors associated with the
utilization of postnatal care.
Conclusion: The overall utilization of antenatal, delivery and postnatal care were inadequate and
determined by maternal age, parity, husband encouragement, antenatal care use, walking distance and
place of delivery. Hence, there is a need to increase the availability and accessibility of the health
services to all women and increase the community‟s awareness about the three maternal health
services are needed.
