Abstract:
Background: - Antenatal care is an essential health care pregnant women need for healthy
maternity and normal growth of the fetus. However, many pregnant women miss the opportunity
particularly in rural settings.
Objective: The objective of this study was to determine Antenatal Care Utilization and associated
factors.
Methods: A community based cross-sectional survey was conducted among women who had less
than one year child in Lemo woreda from March 15 to 30/2015.Both quantitative and qualitative
approaches of data collections were used. Eleven kebeles were randomly selected by lottery
method.347survey sample were recruited using simple random method. In addition, 4 focus group
discussions and 7 in depth interviews were included in the study. Structured interviewer
administered questionnaires, FGD and IDIs guides were used for data collection. Ethical clearance
and formal letters were obtained from ethical review board of Jimma University. Informed concent
was sought from the study participants. The collected data were entered to EPI-data 3.1 and
exported to Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 for analysis and ATLAS-ti
version-7 was used for qualitative data analysis. The descriptive analysis and bivariate and
multivariable logistic regression analysis were used. The crude and adjusted odds ratio together
with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals were computed and P-value<0.05 was
considered to declare a result as statistically significant.
Result: Antenatal care utilization was 121(34.9%) in the study population. Multivariable analysis
revealed that maternal education, knowledge, house hold income, mother decision making power,
urine testing and deworming during ANC visit have positive association with ANC utilization. But
maternal age has negative association with ANC utilization. Result from qualitative data also
support this as most participants mention that male decision making power, social and cultural
influence, women lack of awareness about ANC, supply and service provision problem at health post
make them not to utilize the recommended service.
Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that most women do not utilized the recommended
antenatal care service. This is because of antenatal care was viewed primarily as curative rather
than preventive due to lack of awareness in the study population, social and cultural influence like
male dominance and institutional service and provision time problem and low level of women
education.
Recommendation: health institutions should focus on good approach during care provision,
availing supplies, community education, and strengthening the available linkage and networks,
partner participation and discussion on ANC issues together with women empowerment on
household decision-making would be helpful in reducing the problem.
