Abstract:
Abstract
Introduction: Approximately 358,000 maternal deaths occur annually, of which
over 95% occur in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. One major reason for very high
level of maternal mortality levels in Ethiopia is lack of skilled birth attendant
during birth. The individual or health system factors that affect women's
preferences for delivery places are not well known. This study is believed to
establish an insight about women’s actual practice on skilled delivery care.
Objectives: To assess factors affecting utilization of skilled delivery services
among women in Kedida Gemela District, Southern Ethiopia.
Methods: Community based unmatched case control study was conducted
women who gave birth in the last one year. Cases are those women who got
skilled delivery service and controls are those who didn’t have skilled delivery
service. Simple random sampling technique was employed and a total of 126
cases and 251 controls were included in the study. Face to face interview using a
pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data entry was done by
INFO Version 3.5 and analyzed by SPSS Version16.
Result: Maternal education (AOR=3.00 95% CI: 1.196 to7.541), ANC attendance
(AOR=3.150, 95%CI: 1.825 to 5.437) availability of information on delivery place
place (AOR= 3.744 95%CI: 2.228 to 6.291) transport availability to the nearest
health facility (AOR=1.94, 95%CI: 1.179 to 3.194), birth order (AOR= 3.883
95%CI: 1.78 to 8.472) were found to be independently associated with skilled
delivery service.
Conclusion: Maternal educations, ANC attendance, transport availability to the
nearest health facility, information availability on place of delivery and birth order
were the major factors independently affecting skilled delivery service utilization.
Based on these empirical findings it is suggested that comprehensive efforts to
expand community based Information, Education and Communication should be
made. Investment on maternal education, more efforts on improvement and
provision of ANC and further coordinated efforts on the part of the government in
expansion of health facilities to rural population are also suggested.
