Maternity waiting home Utilization and associated factors among women who gave birth in the Digelu and Tijo district of the Arsi Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

BackgroundMaternity 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 associated factors among women who gave birth in the last 12 months in Digelu and Tijo district Arsi Zone Oromia Region, Ethiopia.MethodsCommunity-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 analyze 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.ResultsOne 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.ConclusionEven 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, promoting antenatal care utilization, empowering women and evolving policy makers are recommended to enhance the current low utilization of the MWH.

Utilization of maternal waiting home and associated factors among women who gave birth in the last one year, Dabat district, Northwest Ethiopia

“…Although distance did not show an association with the MWHS utilization in this study, evidence revealed that distance from the nearby health facility is one determinant factor for MWHS utilization [22]. The other explanation for the higher proportion might be the time gap.…”

“…Accordingly, the study revealed that MWH service utilization was 16.2%. This finding is lower than studies conducted in Ethiopia, including Jimma district (38.7%) (18), Bench Maji zone (39%) [27], and Arsi zone(23.6%) [22]. This finding is also lower compared to two studies conducted in Zambia, in which (27.3%) and (31%) of women used MWHS [16,28].…”

“…Some other studies focus on the intention to use rather than the actual utilization of MWHS [17][18][19][20][21]. Although some other studies conducted on the utilization of MWHS, they collected the data at health institutions [22], and failed to address the reasons for the non-utilization of MWHS for home-delivered women. As a result, this study will add further important information on the utilization of MWH to be revised timely at every level to fill the possible gaps.…”

Knowledge and attitude of women towards maternity waiting homes and associated factors among women who gave birth in the last twelve months in Dega Damot district, northwest Ethiopia

“…Housewives have less decision-making power in health care and other household activities ( 23 ). Evidence show that women's involvement in health care-related decisions was an important factor in MWHs utilization ( 24 ). In turn, it could have a significant effect on the knowledge of women about MWHs.…”

Benefits, barriers and enablers of maternity waiting homes utilization in Ethiopia: an integrative review of national implementation experience to date

“…Nine of the studies showed a correlation between MWHs and improved access to maternal health services, particularly skilled childbirth care [14,28,30,32,33,37,43,45,46]. MWHs strategy has been a means for increasing the demand for maternity care, improving geographic access to childbirth, addressing the second delay, delay in reaching a health center and enabling more timely and comprehensive obstetric care [14,28,33,37,39,46].…”