Abstract:
background: About 80% of people in developing countries live in rural areas, where poor
access to maternity services accounts for the majority of maternal and prenatal deaths.
Utilization of maternity waiting homes, which are residential facilities where women who live
remotely stay and wait before giving birth at a hospital or health centre, is among the
strategies to increase skilled care utilization at birth. The maternity waiting home is a new
initiative in the study area, and there is no research done in the study area and region to
assess the magnitude of utilization of maternity waiting homes and their associated factors.
Objectives; To assess the magnitude of maternity waiting home utilization and associated
factors among mothers who gave birth in 12 months before the survey in Dangur district,
metekel zone, Benishangul Gumuze region, North West Ethiopia 2022.
Methods: community based cross-sectional study design using a structured interviewer administered questionnaire was conducted from June 05–15/2022 among 354 mothers who
gave birth in 12 months before the survey by using a simple random sampling method. Data
was coded, edited, and cleaned, then entered into Epi Data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS
version 25 for analysis. A descriptive, bivariate, and multivariable logistic regression
analysis was done. At the end, a variable with a p-value of 0.05 by multivariate analysis was
reported as significant.
Result ; Total of 354 study participants were involved, with a response rate of 98%. In this
study, utilization of maternity waiting home was 36.4 %( 95%CI: 31.4, 41.8). Knowledge of
the presence of waiting home AOR = 9.58 (95% CI: 4.18-21.9), affordability of
transportation cost AOR = 1.97 (95% CI: 2.05-3.71), Antenatal care 4 follow up AOR = 2.7
(95% CI: 2.47-15), access to transportation AOR = 1.98 (95% CI: 2.00-3.8), and travel time
AOR = 2.41 (95% CI: 2.21-4.98) were factors significantly associated.
Conclusion
The study finding shows maternity waiting home utilization is low. The study implied knowing
the presence of maternity waiting home, transportation cost, ANC 4 follow up, and access to
transportation and traveling time were significantly associated with maternity home
utilization.
