Postnatal Care Services Utilization and Its Associated Factors Among Women Who Gave Birth in the Past One Year in Gulele Sub City, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Introduction: Postpartum period is a critical period in which most maternal and infant deaths occur, especially in the first month after birth. Post natal care is one the interventions for reducing larger proportions of maternal and neonatal deaths. But evidence shows utilization of post natal care services in Sub Saharan countries including Ethiopia is low. Therefore, it is essential to understand the factors that influence women’s for utilization of post natal care services.Objective: To assess postnatal care service utilization and associated factors among women who gave birth in the past one year in Gulele sub city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2015.Methods: Community based Cross sectional study was conducted from February to June 2015 among 817 women who gave birth in the past one year prior to the study. Multistage sampling technique was employed. The data was collected through interview by using a pre-tested questionnaire. Data was entered into EPI info version 7 then exported to SPSS version 20.0 for further analysis. Descriptive statistics was done and both Bivariate and Multivariate analysis were applied to see the association between dependent variable and independent variables.Results: The study revealed that 729 (89.2%) of the respondents were utilized postnatal care services at least once in health facilities. Being married (AOR=4.34), have less than 4 family size (AOR=2.16), delivery assisted by Midwives (AOR=13.79) and Doctors (AOR=9.59), had no information about PNC (AOR=0.07), didn’t received PNC counseling during delivery at health institution (AOR=0.36) and women who were under influence of their husband (AOR=0.21) were found to be significantly associated with postnatal care services utilization.Conclusion and Recommendation: The level of postnatal care service utilization is relatively higher compared to the previous studies. Women’s marital status, assistance at delivery by health professionals, family size, heard information about PNC, counseling on PNC during delivery and those who are able to visit health institution without their husbands influence were significantly associated with utilization of PNC service. Therefore, Federal Ministry of health, Addis Ababa health Bureau together with other stakeholders need to work on women empowerment and strengthening communities’ awareness through health education during Antenatal Care, labor and delivery and post natal care about the importance of having follow-ups after she gave birth to boost the postnatal care service utilization. Keywords:-Post natal care, Utilization, Addis Abab