Abstract:
Background: Maternity waiting homes are defined as lodgings or accommodation close to a
health facility where women can stay before and sometimes after they gave birth. Maternal
waiting homes are considered as an intervention to contribute to increase the utilization of
maternal health service particularly among women living in rural areas where distance,
topography, road access are a barrier to timely arrival atthe health facility.The purpose of the
maternal waiting homes is to improve accessibility and reduce morbidity and mortality for
mother and neonate when complications arise.
Objective: To assess factors associated with maternal waiting homeutilization and pregnancy
outcomes among Women who gave birth in Jimma zone,South West Ethiopia 2021.
Method:Cross-sectional study was conducted among mothers who gave birth within a year
preceding the survey in the selected woredas.Multistage stratified sampling technique was used
to select study participants. Purposive sampling techniques were used to select four woredas and
simple random sampling technique was used to select the kebeles from the selected woredas.
Quantitative data was collected using a structured interview based questionnaire to measure
maternal waiting homesutilization and pregnancy outcome among a total of 633 mothers. Data
was entered into Epi data version 4.6 and analysed using SPSS version 21.Binary and multiple
logistic regression analyses were carried out and variables with p-value < 0.25 were candidates
for multiple logistic regression. Finally, a p-value of less than 0.05 declared the association.
Result:Maternal waiting home utilization among mothers was 24.8%.The main reason for not
utilization was lack of awareness about the existence of MWHs. Autonomous decision making
(AOR=5.11, 95%CI: 3.09, 9.57), knowledge about MWH utilization (AOR=6.59, 95%CI: 3.43,
8.09), and time taken to reach to the health facility (AOR =2.67, 95%CI: 1.19, 6) were
significant predictors of maternal waiting homeutilization. Maternal waiting home utilization
(AOR= 2.4 95%CI: 1.27, 5.6), mode of delivery (AOR=2.37, 95%C.I: 1.12, 4.99), and place of
delivery (AOR=5.32, 95%CI: 1.63, 17.37) were significant predictors of pregnancy outcome.
Conclusion: Utilization of maternal waiting home was low 24.8%. Maternal waiting home
utilizers had more favourable pregnancy outcome than those non-utilizers. Promotion of
maternal waiting home utilization and institutional delivery were recommended
