Access to maternal health services during COVID-19 pandemic, re-examining the three delays among pregnant women in Ilubabor zone, southwest Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: All women require access to high-quality care during pregnancy, labor, and after childbirth. The occurrence of delay at any stage is one of the major causes of maternal mortality. There is, however, a scarcity of data on women’s access to maternal health services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the goal of this study was to assess the magnitude of delays in maternal health service utilization and its associated factors among pregnant women in the Ilubabor zone during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 402 pregnant women selected by systematic random sampling. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 26. Descriptive and summary statistics were used to describe the study population. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to identify factors associated with the outcome variables. Adjusted odds ratio with respective 95% CI was used to report significant covariates. RESULTS: A total of 402 pregnant women participated in this study. The median age of the respondents was 25 years (IQR = 8). On average, a woman stays 1.76 hours (SD = 1.2) to make a decision to seek care. The prevalence of first, second and third delay were 51%, 48%, and 33.3%, respectively. Being unmarried [AOR (95% CI)], [0.145 (0.046–0.452)], being unemployed [AOR (95% CI)], [4.824 (1.685–13.814)], age [AOR (95% CI)], [0.227 (0.089–0.0579)], fear of COVID-19 [AOR (95% CI)], [1.112 (1.036–1.193)], urban residence [AOR (95% CI)], [0.517 (0.295–0.909)], and lack of birth preparedness [AOR (95% CI)], [6.526 (1.954–21.789)] were significantly associated with first delay. Being unmarried [AOR (95% CI)], [5.984 (2.930–12.223)], being unemployed [AOR (95% CI)], [26.978 (3.477–209.308)], and age [AOR (95% CI)], [0.438 (0.226–0.848)] were significantly associated with second delay. Having lengthy admission [AOR (95% CI)], [7.5 (4.053–13.878)] and non-spontaneous vaginal delivery [AOR (95% CI)], [1.471 (1.018–1.999)] were significantly associated with third delay. CONCLUSION: This study identified a significant proportion of mothers experiencing delays, although there were no data to suggest exacerbated delays in utilizing maternal health services due to fear of the COVID-19 pandemic. The proportion of maternal delay varies with different factors. Improving the decision-making capacity of women is, therefore, essential.