Background
The days and weeks following childbirth – the postnatal period – is a critical phase in the lives of mothers and newborn babies. But in low and middle income countries, postnatal care utilization is still low and maternal and neonatal mortality is high. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess postnatal care service utilization and associated factors among mothers in Bahir Dar Zuria district, Northwest Ethiopia, 2019.
MethodsA Community based quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted from December 1, 2018 to January 30, 2019 among 708 women who gave birth six months prior to the data collection. Multistage sampling was used to select study participants. Pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The data were entered in EPI info version 3.5.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Adjusted Odds ratio with 95 % confidence interval was computed to identify the relative association of explanatory variables on postnatal care service utilization.
ResultsThe study revealed that the prevalence of postnatal care service utilizations was 35.6%, (95% CI: 31.90, 39.30). Being involved in women’s health development army (AOR=11.3, 95% CI: 6.41, 19.79), being graduated in health extension packages (AOR=5.1, 95%: 2.88, 8.87), history of antenatal care visits (AOR=6.8, 95% CI: 3.26, 14.27), institutional delivery (AOR=3.3, 95% CI: 1.92, 5.68), giving still birth (AOR=0.22, 95% CI: 0.1, 0.5), and good knowledge on postnatal care (AOR=16.7, 95%: 9.08, 30.86) showed statistical significant association.
ConclusionsPostnatal care utilization in the study area is lower than what is planned to achieve in the Ethiopia growth and transformation plan two. Therefore, increasing women involvement in the health development army and increasing coverage of health extension packages graduated households are recommended to improve postnatal care utilization.
Key words: Postnatal care and utilization
