Tsegahun Worku Brhanie and Habtamu Alemay Anteneh
Background: Institutional delivery is giving birth in health institution under the Overall supervision of trained health professional. Proper care during pregnancy and delivery is important for the health of both the mother and the baby. Methods: Collected questionnaires were checked for completeness coded and entered into SPSS version 16.0 software package. The strength of association of predictor variables with institutional delivery service utilization was assessed using odds ratio with 95% confidence interval. Results: From a total of 573 respondents, only 97 (16.9%) of them gave birth at health facilities and majority of them (83.1%) delivered at home. Regarding preference of the mothers about delivery place during their last pregnancy, 310 (54.1%) preferred to deliver at home, 148 (25.8%) preferred to give birth in health facilities with the assistance of skilled professionals and 20.1% of the mothers preferred to deliver in their mother’s home. Most of the respondents 315 (55%) of mothers prefer to be attended by their mothers and relatives and 190 (34%) preferred traditional (untrained) birth attendants. Conclusion: Low utilization of institutional delivery service and low antenatal care visit in their last pregnancy. Mothers who gave birth at home without a skilled attendant were account the large proportion. Educational status, monthly incomes, ANC visit, distance of health institute, gravidity and abortion experience were significantly associated with the utilization of institutional delivery service.