Tekeba Alemu, Melake Demena, Tesfaye Assebe, Mulugeta Rad* and Belay Erchafo
Background: The contact with the health care within 48 hours and before end of the first week would be the most effective strategy for the mothers and their babies to reduce deaths. Globally, most maternal and new-born death occurs within this period. However, it is yet neglected; little attention and an effort have been paid by health care providers and policy makers in low income countries. Hence the aim of this study was to determine early postnatal service utilization and associated factors among women, who gave birth in the last 12 months prior to March, 2020.
Methods and participants: Community based cross-sectional study design was conducted on 612 mothers by using multistage sampling method from March 1-30, 2020. Interviewer administered pre-tested questionnaire which is adopted from the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey, World health organization and from different literatures was used to collect data. The collected data was entered into EpiData version 3.1 and then exported into SPSS window version 21 for analysis. In bivariate logistic regression variables with p-value less than 0.25 were selected for multiple logistic regression analyses and in multiple logistic regression analysis p value less than 0.05 was used to declare statistical significance. Finally adjusted odds ratio was used to measure strength of association.
Results: The prevalence of early postnatal care services utilization among postnatal mothers was 24.9%. Number of live birth [(AOR: 4.16, 95% CI: 1.6- 10)], Mode of delivery [(AOR: 3, 95% CI: 1.4-7.8)], previous history of early postnatal care utilization [(AOR: 1.8, 95% CI: 1.01-3.375)], complications at labor and delivery [(AOR: 2.3, 95% CI: 1.314-4.27)], Hours to reach health facility [(AOR: 2.4, 95% CI: 1.4-4.)], and Knowledge of respondents [(AOR: 1.8, 95% CI: 1.1-3)] were significantly associated factors with early postnatal care utilization.
Conclusion: in this study early postnatal service utilization was low. Number of birth, Mode of delivery, early postnatal care utilization in the previous delivery, Faced complications during labor and delivery, Distance/time took to arrive health facility on foot and knowledge of mothers were factors affecting early postnatal care utilization.
