Women?s Autonomy on Maternal Health Care Utilization and its Associated Factors in Western Ethiopia, a Community based Mixed Crosssectional Study, 2019

Abstract

Background: Limited women’s autonomy in Maternal Health Care is the main underlying causes of poor utilization of maternal health care, and contributed in high maternal and children morbidity and mortality, low birth weight, and infertility. However, up to our search, in Ethiopia little emphasis has been placed on assessing factors associated with women autonomy. So this study was intended to assess status of Women’s Autonomy and its Associated Factors on Maternal Health Care utilization in west Ethiopia. Method: A mixed community based cross-sectional study was employed from March 1-30, 2019. We selected 468 study participants through a multi-stage sampling method. Collected data were entered into Epi Data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS 21.0 for analysis. Statistical significance level was set at p < 0.05. Result: Response rate of the study was 99.2%. This study revealed that 66.2% of women had high autonomy. Women who attended secondary and above education [AOR=3.22, 95% CI [1.40, 7.44]], those from richest family [AOR= 9.86, [95% CI [4.21, 23.08]], having favorable attitude toward maternal health care, [AOR:[3.34, 95%CI [1.89, 5.89]], being urban dwellers [AOR: 2.47,95% CI [1.212, 5.046]], early marriage [3.30[1.89, 5.75]], and women’s employment for payment [3.39[1.84, 6.23]] were showed significant association with high women’s autonomy on maternal health care utilization. Conclusion: Even though there is a progress, still women autonomy regarding maternal health care utilization needs emphasis.