Background The majority of the population has inappropriate malaria treatment‐seeking behavior and little is known about self‐medication practice with antimalarials among postpartum mothers. Aim & objectives of study The study, therefore, aims to determine the prevalence of self‐treatment practice with antimalarials and identify factors that determine inappropriate treatment‐seeking practice in this susceptible group. Research methods The study is a cross‐sectional study that was conducted using a purposive sampling technique. In the study, 150 respondents were administered questionnaires by one‐on‐one interviews, and results were presented as frequencies and proportions. A chi‐square test was done to determine the association between independent categorical variables and the dependent variable. Results In the study, 91 (60.7%) of the women claimed they did malaria screening tests in the laboratory/clinic before treatment, while only half of them sought professional care for treatment after the screening test. Additionally, most of the participants claimed they practice self‐medication with antimalarials for themselves (64, 42.7%), and their newborn children (34, 22.7%). The experience of adverse effects (χ2 = 4.790, df = 1, p = .029) drug prescription by doctors (χ2 = 10.26, df = 1, p = .001) and the experience of malaria in the rainy season (χ2 = 4.86, df = 2, p = .027) was significantly related to receiving malaria treatment in the clinic/hospital. Conclusion The study has shown that the practice of self‐medication and inappropriate malaria treatment behavior is common in postpartum women in rural settings hence public health intervention that will develop standardized self‐treatment guidelines for uncomplicated malaria will be useful in promoting appropriate self‐treatment practice in this population. Highlights Self‐medication practice with antimalarials among postpartum mothers both for themselves and their newborn child was 42.7% and 22.7% respectively One of the reasons adduced for such practice is that malaria is expensive to treat (37, 24.7%) Artemether/lumefantrine combination was the most commonly used drug for treatment (75.3%), and most of the participants preferred parenteral medication (68%) to oral drugs The experience of adverse effects was significantly related to receiving treatment in the clinic/hospital Of the 60.7% of women who claimed they did malaria screening test, only half of them sought professional care after the test.
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