Prevalence and Associated Factors of Postnatal Care Utilization Among Women Attending Immunization Clinic in Health Centers in Hawassa City , Southern Ethiopia,. 2019

Introduction: Postnatal care is a care provided to women and their babies within 42 days after deliveryA large proportion of maternal and neonatal deaths occur during the first 48 hours after delivery, and these first two days following delivery are critical for monitoring complications arising from the delivery World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that after an uncomplicated vaginal birth in a health facility, healthy mothers newborns should receive care in the facility for at least 24 hours after birth. If birth is at home, the first postnatal contact should be as early as possible within 24 hours of birth. Objective: To assess prevalence and associated factors of postnatal care utilization among women attending immunization clinics in health centers, Hawassa city, southern Ethiopia, 2019. Methodology: Institution based cross sectional study design was done. Study was conducted in all health centers .The total sample sizes were 306 women attending immunization clinic at health centers A random sampling technique was employed to select the study subjects. Data collection was conducted from study subjects using pretest questioners. The questioner was developed in English. Ethical clearance was obtained from the research unit of Rift Valley University. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20 for windows. Frequency distribution table and statically graph were used to describe the variables of interest. The associated factors of postnatal care utilization were identified using bivariate and multivariate analysis. Result: Multi parous women who had PNC experience were three times more likely to utilize PNC service for the current delivery than those primi Para women[ AOR=2.8, 95% CI (1.36-5.8)]. On the other hand, those multi parous women who hadn’t PNC experience were almost 50% less likely to utilize PNC for the current delivery than those primi Para women[AOR=0.43, 95% CI (0.20-0.92)]. Finally, those women who were discharged from the institution after delivery at less than 6 hrs of stay were almost 80% less likely to utilize PNC than those women who stayed more than 24hrs [AOR= 0.22, 95% CI (0.06-0.83)]. Conclusion: The overall prevalence of PNC service utilization in this study was relatively good as compared to the HSDP IV report for Hawassa city in the 2006 EFY. PNC counseling and provision of appointment, counseling on danger sign, past experience of PNC utilization, and less than 6 hours stay at health institution before discharge were found to statistically significant for the current PNC service Utilization