The Role of Women Health Development Army on Postnatal Care Utilization in Primary Health Care Units of Bahir Dar Zuria District, Northwest Ethiopia, 2019: a Community Based Cross-Sectional Study

Background: The days and weeks following childbirth – the postnatal period – is a critical phase in the lives of mothers and new born babies. But in low and middle income countries, postnatal care utilization is still low and maternal and neonatal mortality is high. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess postnatal care service utilization and associated factors among mothers in primary health care units of Bahir Dar Zuria district, Northwest Ethiopia, 2019. Methods: A Community based quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted from December 1, 2018 to January 30, 2019 among 708 women who gave birth six months prior to the data collection. Multistage sampling was used to select study participants. Pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The data were entered in EPI info version 3.5.1 and analysed using SPSS version 20.0. Adjusted Odds ratio with 95 % confidence interval was computed to identify the relative association of explanatory variables on postnatal care service utilization. Results: The study revealed that the prevalence of postnatal care service utilizations was 35.6%, (95% CI: 31.90, 39.30). Being involved in women’s health development army (AOR=11.3, 95% CI: 6.41, 19.79), being graduated in health extension packages (AOR=5.1, 95%: 2.88, 8.87), history of antenatal care attendance (AOR=6.8, 95% CI: 3.26, 14.27), institutional delivery (AOR=3.3, 95% CI: 1.92, 5.68), giving still birth (AOR=0.22, 95% CI: 0.1, 0.5), and good knowledge on postnatal care (AOR=16.7, 95%: 9.08, 30.86) showed statistical significant association. Conclusions: Postnatal care utilization in the study area is lower than what is planned to achieve in the Ethiopia growth and transformation plan two. Therefore, increasing women involvement in the health development army and increasing coverage of health extension packages graduated households are recommended to improve postnatal care utilization.