Abstract:
Abstract
Introduction: Of all maternal and newborn deaths, up to one-half of newborn deaths
occur during the first 24 hours after birth. Approximately two – thirds of all maternal
deaths occur during the postnatal period.
Objective: to assesspostnatal care utilization and associated factors among women
who gave birth in the past one year in Gulele sub city, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Methods: Community based, cross sectional quantitative method was conducted
from February to June 2015among 817 women who gave birth in the past one
yearprior to the study. Multistage sampling technique was employed.The data was
collected by administering a pre-tested interview questionnaireand entered into EPI
info version 7 then exported to SPSS version 20.0. Descriptive statistics, bivariate
and multivariate analysis applied to analyze the data.
Results:The study showed that 729 (89.2%) utilized postnatal care service at least
once in health facilities.Women’s occupation ((AOR: .44, 95% CI [.20, .96]),
Information about PNC ((AOR: 27.08, 95% CI [10.25, 71.49]), family size ((AOR:
.3895% CI, [.19, .76]), marital status (AOR= .20, 95% CI: [.07, .56]), assistants
during delivery(AOR= .11, 95% CI: [.03, .39]), anddecision making authority (AOR=
4.62 [1.37, 15.61]), were found to be significantly associated with postnatal care
service utilization.
Conclusion:Thelevel of postnatal care service utilization is relatively higher
compared to the previous studies. Marital status, family size, women’s occupation,
assistants during delivery and information about PNC and husband’s influence were
found to besignificantly associated with postnatal care service utilization.
Recommendation:FederalMinstry of Health and other health development partners
working in thearea should focus on improving and strengtheningcommunity
awareness on reproductive health, healthy pregnancy outcome, skilled delivery
assistantsandmale involvement in the promotion of women decision making on
seekinghealth services.
Key words: Post natalcare, utilization
