Journal of Women's Health Care
Open Access

Abstract

Postnatal Care Service Utilization and Associated Factors among Mothers in Lemo Woreda, Ethiopia

Tefera Belachew, Ayanos Taye and Tamiru Belachew

Background: Postnatal careis one of the most important maternal health-care interventions for prevention of illnesses and deaths during the postnatal period. Globally, more than 350,000 women die annually from complications during pregnancy or childbirth, almost all of them (99%) in developing countries. In Ethiopia, utilization of postnatal care service is very low due to various factors and these problems significantly hold back the goal of decreasing maternal mortality.
Objective: To asses postnatal care service utilization and associated factors among mothers in Lemo Woreda, Hadiya Zone, South Ethiopia.
Methods: A community based cross sectional study which is supplemented by qualitative method was employed from March to April, 2015. A total 352 mothers who gave birth 12 months prior to the study period were selected by using random sampling technique. Structured questionnaires and focus group discussion guideline were used to collect data. Data were entered into EPI info version 3.1 and exported into SPSS version 16.0 for the quantitative study and thematic framework analysis was applied to the qualitative portion. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression model were used to isolate independent predictors of postnatal care service utilization.
Results: The prevalence of postnatal care services utilization was 51.4%. The most cited reasons for not obtaining postnatal care services were lack of knowledge on benefits of postnatal care (59%), being busy on other family matters (38.6%) and socio-cultural practices during puerperium (20.4%). The predicted probabilities, using multivariable logistic regression, showed that maternal knowledge on postnatal danger signs (AOR=4.46, 95% CI: (2.15, 9.24), previous experience of obstetric complication (AOR=4.52, 95% CI: (1.63, 12.54) , antenatal care visit (AOR=6.34, 95% CI: (2.33, 17.23), place of delivery (AOR: 7.94, 95% CI: (3.12, 20.18), and socio-cultural practices during puerperium (AOR: 0.07, 95% CI: (0.02, 0.24) were factors found to be significantly associated with postnatal care services utilization.
Conclusion and recommendations: In this study postnatal care service utilization was found to be higher as compared to findings of some other studies conducted in the country. Developing targeted public education campaign strategies about the benefits and timing of postnatal care in a sustainable manner is an important interventional package. More over engaging community influential members in the promotional activities about the use of institutional delivery and devise educational or behavior change strategies that discourage harmful traditional practices during puerperium can be some of the essential interventions to be done at different levels.