Rekiku Fikre and Yonas Alemayehu Fiche
Background: Emergency obstetric and newborn care is a package of medical interventions averts 40% of intrapartum related maternal and neonatal deaths. This study aimed to assess provider’s knowledge and availability of emergency obstetrics and newborn care service in public facility of Gedeo zone, south Ethiopia 2017. Method: Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted from Septmber1-to October 30/ 2017. Simple random sampling was used to select 271 obstetric care providers. Medical supplies, infrastructure and record review were assessed at each facility. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses were performed using SPSS version 20.0.Crude with adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval at p-value< 0.05were computed to examine statistical significance. EmONC indicators were calculated by using standard United Nations guidelines Result: 47% of obstetric care providers had knowledge towards emergency obstetric and newborn care. Training with (AOR=4.32, 95% CI: 1.69, 11.86), being a midwives with (AOR=2. 52, 95% CI: 1.03-8.3) and work experience more than five years with (AOR=5.52, 95% CI: 1.05, 9.06) were positively associated with knowledge of obstetric care providers. One facility served as comprehensive CEmOC facility. The number of CEmOC facilities per 500,000 populations was 0.59 and the number of EmONC facilities per 500,000 populations was 6.8. Assisted vaginal delivery and management of pre-eclampsia were the most frequently missed signal functions. Conclusion: EmONC facility ratio was not adequate while CEmONC facility ratio met the minimum standard. Training, being a midwives and work experience was positively associated with provider’s knowledge.
