Postnatal Care Service Utilization and Associated Factors Among Women in Dembecha District, Northwest Ethiopia

Women play a principal role in the raring of children and management ranges of family affairs. Meanwhile, it is a tragedy to witness mothers losing their life from manageable maternity related causes. Postnatal care service is one of the strategies to avoid this loss. The main aim of this study was to assess the level of utilization of Post Natal Care and associated factors Dembecha District, Northwest Ethiopia. Community-based cross-sectional study design was used. Using women having children of less than two years of age living in Dembecha district were selected. Multistage sampling technique was employed involving a total of 788 samples and semi-structured questionnaire was used as data collection tool. Epidata version 3.1. Software was used for data entry and clearance and then SPSS version 16 was used for data analysis. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression was fitted and possible association and statistical significance were measured using odds ratio at 95% confidence interval and p-value less than 0.05. The study revealed that the level of Post Natal Care service utilizations was 34.8%. The Predicted probabilities, using logistic regression, showed that women who had formally education {AOR=2.122(1.372, 3.281)}, antenatal care service utilization for the last child {AOR=4.141(2.451, 6.995)}, Distance from the health institutions, had shown significant association {AOR=3.972(2.627, 6.008)}. About 73.9% of respondents answered their reason for not to use PNC service was lack of awareness followed by transportation problem (15.9%). Women did not know whether they were required to go to health institution or not after they had given birth at home unless complications happen to the newborns and themselves. PNC service utilization was less than what was planned by the district. Therefore intervention targeted to women’s awareness and empowerment, improving infrastructure in rural areas, expanding health care facilities to the currently unreached rural areas are recommendations’ of the study.