Abstract:
Introduction: Postpartum care is the care provided for the mother immediately following child
birth from the first one hour after placenta delivered to six weeks and counseling on family
planning, postpartum danger signs, feeding, hygiene, postpartum mental health and schedule
for postpartum care. Whether the mother gave birth her baby at home or in a health facility; in
the majority of cases, postpartum care are not given adequately and are highly limited in
Ethiopia in terms of coverage and schedule by which the service should be provided.
Objective: The aim of the study was to assess prevalence and predictors of postpartum care
uptake among mothers who gave birth in the last six months in Mertule Mariam District,
Northwest Ethiopia.
Method and Materials: Community based descriptive cross sectional study design was carried
out by cluster sampling method with total sample size of 565 from January 30 to February 8,
2018. Structured interviewer administered pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data. The
collected data was entered into Epi data version 4.2 and then exported into SPSS window
version 24. Bivariate and multivariate analysis were undertaken and information was presented
by using simple frequency tables, graphs and pie charts.
Result: The prevalence of postpartum care uptake was found 19% (95% CI: 15.2, 21.9).
Knowledge about postpartum care (AOR=6.35, 95% CI: 3.41, 11.82), having four or more
antenatal care (AOR=8.59, 95% CI: 4.59, 14.58), experiencing last delivery complication
(AOR=4.89, 95% CI: 2.52, 9.49) and health information after delivery (AOR=3.57, 95% CI:
1.69, 7.53) were found to be statistically associated with postpartum care uptake. Fifty one
percent of mothers reported that no postpartum complication was the main barrier to postpartum
care uptake.
Conclusion and recommendations: Postpartum care had low uptake and it was identified
inadequate by schedule in the district. Frequency of ANC visit, knowledge, postpartum
complication and health information were independent predictors for PPC uptake. This is an
important message for the district health office, service providers and researchers. Hence, there
is an urgent need to assess the quality of PPC provided and a need for knowledge and ANC
raising programme focusing on the schedule.
