High‐quality postnatal care is vital for improving maternal health. This study examined the relationship between household socioeconomic status and both coverage and quality of postnatal care in Ethiopia.
Cross‐sectional household survey data were collected in October–November 2013 from 12 zones in 4 regions of Ethiopia. Women reporting a live birth in the 3–24 months prior to the survey were interviewed about the care they received before, during and after delivery and their demographic characteristics. Using mixed effect logistic and linear regression, the associations between household socioeconomic status and receiving postnatal care, location of postnatal care (health facility vs. non‐health facility), cadre of person providing care and the number of seven key services (including physical checks and advice) provided at a postnatal visit, were estimated.
A total of 16% (358/2189) of women interviewed reported receiving at least one postnatal care visit within 6 weeks of delivery. Receiving a postnatal care visit was strongly associated with socioeconomic status with women from the highest socioeconomic group having twice the odds of receiving postnatal care compared to women in the poorest quintile (OR [95% CI]: 1.98 [1.29, 3.05]). For each increasing socioeconomic status quintile there was a mean increase of 0.24 postnatal care services provided (95% CI: 0.06–0.43, p = 0.009) among women who did not give birth in a facility. There was no evidence that number of postnatal care services was associated with socioeconomic status for women who gave birth in a facility. There was no evidence that socioeconomic status was associated with the provider or location of postnatal care visits.
See how this article has been cited at scite.ai
scite shows how a scientific paper has been cited by providing the context of the citation, a classification describing whether it supports, mentions, or contrasts the cited claim, and a label indicating in which section the citation was made.