Abstract:
Background: The postpartum period is one of the most vulnerable and critical periods for the mother and
newborn. Despite postnatal care services has significant role in improving maternal health, services are
underutilized in most developing countries including Ethiopia.
Objective of the study: To assess the prevalence of post natal care service utilization and associated
factors among women who gave birth in the last one year in Ambo Town,West Showa Zone, Ethiopia.
Methods: Community based cross sectional mixed method study design were conducted from 25 April to
25 may 2023. The quantitative data were collected through interview by using questionnaire from 428
women who gave birth in the last one year prior to the study. Bivariable logistics regression was
computed to identify candidate variable with pvalue less than 0.25 and multivariable logistic regression
analysis were carried out to identify factors associated with postnatal care services utilization. A
significant association was declared when p-value is less than 0.05. The strength of association is
determined by calculating odds ratio at 95% confidence interval. The qualitative data were collected from
purposively sampled women using focused group discussions and analized by thematic content analysis
method.
Result: From the total of 428 participants in this study 37.4% of women in this town visited health
facilities for PNC services with the response rate of 99.5% . The odds of PNC service utilization among
women with diploma and above (AOR: 6.6, 95%: CI:3.6 – 7.8), women of primipara (AOR: 2.8, 95%:
CI:1.06–7.6), mothers awareness about danger sign (AOR: 3.8, 95% CI: 1.62 - 8.9) and Mothers who
recived appointment for postnatal care utilization (AOR=3.9, 95% CI: 1.8 - 6.9) had showed statistical
significant association with PNC service utilization. According to the qualitative findings, lack of
awareness, religio us practice, inviromental exposure and waiting time were identified as associated factor
for PNC service utilization.
Conclussion and recommendation: The study showed low utilization of Post natal care services.
creating awareness on maternal denger sign may have a large positive impact on improving utilization of
PNC service.
