Abstract:
Introduction: Approximately 358,000 maternal deaths occur annually, of which over 95% occur in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. One major reason for very high level of maternal mortality levels in Ethiopia is lack of skilled birth attendant during birth. The individual or health system factors that affect women's preferences for delivery places are not well known. This study is believed to establish an insight about women’s actual practice on skilled delivery care. Objectives: To assess factors affecting utilization of skilled delivery services among women in Kedida Gemela District, Southern Ethiopia.
Methods: Community based unmatched case control study was conducted women who gave birth in the last one year. Cases are those women who got skilled delivery service and controls are those who didn’t have skilled delivery service. Simple random sampling technique was employed and a total of 126cases and 251 controls were included in the study. Face to face interview using a pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data entry was done by INFO Version 3.5 and analyzed by SPSS Version16. Result: Maternal education(AOR=3.00 95% CI: 1.196 to7.541),ANC attendance(AOR=3.150,95%CI: 1.825to 5.437)availability of information on delivery place (AOR=3.74495%CI:2.228 to 6.291) transport availability to the nearest health facility(AOR=1.94, 95%CI:1.179 to3.194), birth order(AOR=3.88395%CI: 1.78 to 8.472)were found to be independently associated with skilled delivery service. Conclusion: Maternal educations, ANC attendance, transport availability to the nearest health facility, information availability on place of delivery and birth order were the major factors independently affecting skilled delivery service utilization. Based on these empirical findings it is suggested that comprehensive efforts to expand community based Information, Education and Communication should be made. Investment on maternal education, more efforts on improvement and provision of ANC and further coordinated efforts on the part of the government in expansion of health facilities to rural population are also suggested.