Institutional Delivery Service Utilization and Associated Factors Among Women in West Central Ethiopia

Abstract

Pregnancy and child birth related complications are main causes of death and disability among women of childbearing age in developing countries. The Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for more than half of the global maternal deaths and most of these deaths occur during labor and following child birth from preventable causes that can be averted by professional intervention. Hence, the aim of this study was to assess the level of institutional delivery service utilization and associated factors among women who gave birth in West Central Ethiopia. A community based cross-sectional study was conducted from January 10 to February 10, 2014. Quantitative data were collected using a structured questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS V.20.0. Descriptive statistics were used to present the data and logistic regression was applied to check the association between the dependent and independent variables. A total of 410 women were included in the study of whom70.7% had given birth their last baby at health facilities. Women with secondary and above educational status (AOR [95%CI] = 4.525 [95% CI: 1.831-11.180]), those who had an access to Radio and TV (AOR [95%CI] = 3.214 [1.361-7.591]), women from families with average monthly income greater than 1,000.00 Ethiopian Birr (AOR [95%CI] = 3.300 [1.555- 6.999]), and women who had antenatal care follow up during their last pregnancy (AOR [95%CI] = 2.409 [1.088-5.335]) were more likely to utilize institutional delivery service. In conclusion, a significant number of women did not give birth their last baby at health facilities. Maternal educational status, access to mass media, family income status and antenatal care visit were important predictors of institutional delivery service utilization. Increasing Health Extension Workers’ involvement in improving community awareness, and women empowerment through education and economic development are important measures to improve institutional delivery service utilization. Keywords: