Delay in receiving emergency obstetric care and associated factors among mothers who gave birth in public hospitals of Bale and East Bale zones, Oromia region, South East Ethiopia: Facility based cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION: Delays in timely seeking care, failure to reach health institutions and receiving ineffective health care cause maternal mortality in developing countries. The three maternal delay was used to identify contributing factors to maternal death. There was limited data on the maternal delay in receiving emergency obstetric care services in the study area. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the magnitude of delay in receiving emergency obstetric care and associated factors among postnatal mothers in the Bale and east Bale zones. METHODS: A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 407 postnatal women from April 6 to May 6, 2022. A systematic random sampling technique was used to select study participants. The data were collected electronically using an Open Data Kit and exported to SPSS window version 25 for cleaning and analysis. Both bivariate and multivariable analyses were done by using a binary logistic regression model to identify factors associated with delay in receiving emergency obstetric care services. Statistical significance was declared at P-value < 0.05. RESULTS: In this study, the magnitude of delay in receiving institutional delivery service utilization was 34.6% with [95% CI (30.0_39.5)]. Delay one was found to be statistically associated with maternal delay in receiving institutional delivery services (AOR = 2.07; 95% CI: 1.21, 3.53). Mothers with low monthly income had shown higher odds of delay (AOR = 1.79; 95% CI: 1.03, 3.10). Moreover, the delay in receiving emergency obstetric care was 89% less likely among mothers who had not been referred multiple times than among those who had been referred many times (AOR = 0.10; 95% CI: 0.06, 0.18). CONCLUSION: This study showed that the magnitude of the delay in receiving the utilization of emergency obstetric care services in the study area was high. Factors such as delay one, average monthly income and multiple referrals of mothers were found significant factors for delay in receiving care. Therefore, it is important to reduce delay in receiving institutional delivery by working on promoting road accessibility, transport mechanisms and building health education on key danger signs.