Maternity Continuum Care Completion and Its Associated Factors in Northwest Ethiopia

Continuum care is a basic package approach for women to receive essential services throughout pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum, and it is critical for women and their infants' survival and well-being. Although it is an effective strategy for improving maternal and child health, it has not been implemented adequately in less developed countries, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa, including Ethiopia, where 55% of women have been dropped out from the continuum of care. Therefore, this study is aimed at assessing maternity continuum care completion and its associated factors within northwest Ethiopia, 2020.

A community-based cross-sectional study design was considered among 504 women from March 10 to March 30, 2020, using pretested and structured questionnaires administered via face-to-face interviews. To select study participants, a simple random sampling technique was used. Data were coded, checked, and entered into EpiData software (V. 4.2), then transferred to SPSS (V. 25) for further analysis. A bivariable analysis with 95% CI was performed, and variables with P 0.25 during binary logistic regression were entered into a multivariable analysis to assess predictors' independent effect.

About 177 (37.6%) women completed maternal continuum care. Women with secondary education and above (AOR = 2.75, 95% CI 1.42-5.32), urban residence (AOR = 2.45, 95% CI 1.35-4.45), using ambulance transport (AOR = 3.96, 95% CI 2.19-7.19), mass media exposure (AOR = 3.64, 95% CI 2.02-6.56), and distance from health facilities (AOR = 3.22, 95% CI 1.84-5.63) showed significant positive associations with completion of maternity continuum care.

However, a higher proportion of mothers completed the continuum of maternity care in the district than Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey 2016 (9.1%); further interventions are compulsory to reach the acceptable level. Hence, comprehensive awareness-raising, education, and promotion activities at the community and health facility levels and empowering women in health care and decision-making backing to expand the completion of maternity continuum of care are necessary.