Maternity Waiting Home Utilization and Associated Factors among Women Who Gave Birth in the Digelu and Tijo District of the Arsi Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia

Teshome D, Abera M and Nigatu M

Published on: 2022-12-14

Abstract

Background: Maternity Waiting Homes (MWHs) is an intervention designed to reduce maternal and perinatal mortality. Ethiopia has introduced the intervention before three decades; however, its utilization is very low. Therefore, this study is aimed to assess MWH utilization and associate- ed factors among women who gave birth in the last 12 months in Digelu and Tijo district Arsi Zone Oromia Region, Ethiopia.

Methods: Community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in April 2019 on 530 randomly selected women. Data were collected by face-to-face interview using structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and logistics regressions were used to analyse the results. Adjusted odds ratio and 95% confidence interval were respectively calculated to measure strength of association and its statistical significance. The confidence interval was used to declare statistical significance in the final model.

Results: One hundred twenty-five (23.6%) of the respondents used maternity waiting home. Traveling time less than and equals to 60 minutes from a nearby health facility (AOR=0.16, 95% CI: 0.09, 0.27), women’s decision power (AOR=1.81, 95% CI: 1.10, 2.96), not utilizing antenatal care (AOR=0.6, 95% CI: 0.37, 0.97) and delivering more than three children (AOR=0.56, 95% CI: 0.34, 0.90) were independently associated with utilizing the maternity waiting home.

Conclusion: Even though the MWH was designed to reduce maternal and perinatal mortality, less than a quarter (23.6%) of women delivered in the last 12 months before the study in the Digelu and Tijo District had utilized the services. Increasing availability of the service, promot- ing antenatal care utilization, empowering women and evolving policy makers are recommended to enhance the current low utilization of the MWH.