Status of Home Delivery and Its Associated Factors among Women Who Gave Birth within the Last 12 Months in East Badawacho District, Hadiya Zone, Southern Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Home delivery is responsible to maternal mortality due to obstetric complication like hemorrhage, hypertensive disorders, and sepsis. The prevalence of home delivery is remained very high both nationally (73%) and regionally (SNNPR) with 74.5%. Efforts were made to increase institutional delivery through skilled birth attendance. But women still prefer home as a place of delivery. This study was done to determine whether home preference has association with home delivery or not and the reason why they prefer home delivery METHOD: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in East Badawacho District from January 26 to February 25/2018. A total of 552 participants were selected by systematic sampling. Data were collected using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Bivariate and multivariable analyses were carried out to identify factors associated with home delivery. Qualitative data was analyzed thematically, and results were triangulated with the data. Associations were determined by using OR at 95% CI and p value at 0.05. RESULT: Home delivery is found to be 73.6% (95% CI, 69.9%-77.2%). Lack of written birth plan for birth preparedness and readiness (AOR = 14.965, 95% CI: 4.488-49.899), incomplete number of ANC visits (1-3)(AOR = 4.455, 95% CI: 1.942-10.221), and home preference as a place of delivery (AOR = 4.039, 95% CI: 1.545-10.558) were independent predictors of home delivery. CONCLUSION: Home delivery was high in the district. The independent factors significantly associated with home were lack of written birth plan for preparedness and readiness, incomplete number of ANC visits (1-3), and home preference as place of delivery. Actions targeting maternal education, encouraging number of ANC visits, and avoiding barriers for ID utilization were the crucial areas to tackle the problem.