Prevalence of Home Delivery and Factors Associated among Women who Gave Birth in the last Two Years in Tulla Sub City, Hawassa, Southern Ethiopia, 2014

Introduction: Maternal morbidity and mortality is concern throughout the world. Pregnancy and birth related complications are among the leading causes of maternal deaths. Even though increasing number of births given in health institution with the assistance of health care provider is considered basic to improve the bad outcomes the situation is worse in Ethiopia. As intervening for improvement needs sound understanding this research work aimed to assess prevalence of home delivery and associated factors among births given in the last two years in Tulla sub-city, Hawassa, Southern Ethiopia, 2014.

Methodology: A community based cross-sectional study design was employed. By using simple random sampling technique 83 mothers were selected and interviewed with semi-structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square test.

Result: Prevalence of home delivery was found being 32 (38.5%). Wish to give birth with the presence of relatives, short duration of labor and non-kind care of health workers were commonly reported reasons for home delivery. Educational status of the women (X²=16.71, df=3&amp;p-value <0.001), household monthly income(X²=5.11, df=2&amp;p-value <0.05) and receiving ANC follow up (X²=16.25,df=2, p-value <0.01) and distance of health institution from home (X²=24.90 , df=1 , p-value <0.001) were significantly associated with place of delivery.

Conclusion: Prevalence of home delivery was less than regional figure and in country research findings. Wish to give birth with the presence of relative, short duration of labor and non-kind behavior of health care providers were common reasons of home delivery. Women educational status, household monthly income, ANC follow up and distance are associated with place of delivery. Even though home delivery prevalence is low in the study area it is considerable as the country is with motto of no maternal death. Due emphasis better be given to improve women educational status, household income, attendance of ANC and distance. Further research could also be conducted with large sample size and statistics showing strength and direction of association.