Leveraging maternity waiting homes to increase the uptake of immediate postpartum family planning in primary health care facilities in Ethiopia

Abstract

Abstract
Background: Maternity waiting homes within primary health care facilities are ideal platforms to reach women with family planning education and counselling. Maternity waiting home users interact with health care providers on a regular basis throughout their waiting period and can prepare to initiate the family planning method of their choice immediately after childbirth. To date, there has been no clear evidence about the use of maternity waiting homes to increase the uptake of immediate postpartum family planning. The aim of this study is to assess the contribution of maternity waiting homes to increase the uptake of immediate postpartum family planning among women who deliver in primary health care facilities in Ethiopia.

Methods: A comparative cross-sectional study design was conducted to collect quantitative data from women who gave birth within 12 months prior to the study. Multi-stage random sampling procedures were employed to select 884 women. Descriptive summaries and logistic regressions with 95% confidence intervals were conducted using Stata version14 to analyze the data.

Results: The prevalence of immediate postpartum family planning use among women who used maternity waiting homes was 44%, while among those who did not use maternity waiting homes it was 36%. The use of maternity waiting homes significantly contributed to an increase in the immediate uptake of postpartum family planning (OR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.51-0.95, p<0.022).

Conclusions and recommendations: This study showed that maternity waiting homes significantly contributed to improved uptake of immediate postpartum family planning within 10 minute or 48 hours after delivery. Developing a comprehensive package of maternal care services in maternity waiting homes has the potential to improve the uptake of family planning among postpartum women. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 2021; 35(1):9-17]

Key words: Ethiopia, family planning, immediate postpartum, maternity waiting home, primary health care facilities