Abstract:
The postnatal period is a critical phase in the lives of mothers and their infants,
setting the stage for long-term health and well-being. In Ethiopia, Most maternal and infant deaths
occur during this time. Optimal postpartum care is recommended to prevent these deaths; however
uptake of the service is low and institutional based studies on postpartum care are also limited.
Objective: To determine the determinants and prevalence of complete postpartum care utilization
among women who gave birth /received PNC in Mettu Karl Referral Hospital, Southwest Ethiopia
in 2019.
Methods: Facility based cross-sectional study was conducted in sample size of 216 in Mettu Karl
Referral Hospital, Southwest Ethiopia in 2019. Fifteen women who received PNC within March to
September 2019 and 8 HCW currently working in the hospital were interviewed for qualitative
study. Participants were selected by systematic random sampling technique for quantitative study
and purposive sampling technique was applied to select participants for qualitative study. The data
was coded and entered to Epi Data version 3.1 and was exported to, cleaned and analyzed by using
SPSS version 24. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression tests were carried out to identify
determinant factors at p value threshold < 0.05. Thematic analysis was applied for qualitative study.
Results: A total of 216 participants were included in the analysis with the response rate of 100%.
The prevalence of complete postnatal care service utilization in this study was 15.75%. Maternal
educational status of preparatory (grade 11-12) level (P value 0.041, AOR: 2.69, 95% CI: 1.34-
7.76), ANC visits at least three times (P value 0.023, AOR: 3.66, 95% CI: 1.196-11.213), and mode
of delivery by Caesarean section (P value 0.032, AOR: 3.04, 95% CI: 1.101-8.368) were found to
be significantly associated with complete postpartum care utilization.
Conclusion: This study showed that the overall complete utilization of PNC service in Mettu town
is low. Mothers’ education, ANC visits at least three times and caesarian deliveries were associated
with complete postnatal care service utilization. It is worthwhile for policies to focus on postpartum
period. More rigorous studies are needed to identify factors with causal association with complete
postpartum care service utilization.
