Magnitude of husbands' involvement in skilled birth attendant service utilization in Deder town, Oromiya, Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Husbands' involvement strategies are employed to support their wives to access care, address the influence of gender inequality on maternal and newborn health, and promote husbands' positive involvement as fathers. Yet, evidence of the husbands' involvement in skilled birth attendant service utilization in Ethiopia is scarce, which limits the facility to improve institutional delivery services. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the magnitude of husbands' involvement in skilled birth attendant service utilization among fathers of children of less than one year in Deder town, Oromiya, Ethiopia. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted using a structured questionnaire among 399 fathers selected by a simple random sampling technique. Data were collected through face-to-face interview from March 24 to April 20, 2021. Data entry was done by Epi-data version-4.2 and analyzed with SPSS version-21. Descriptive statistics used frequency, mean and median and presented by tables and figures. The level of significance was set at p-value ≤0.05 for multivariable logistic regression and an adjusted odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval was used to measure the degree of statistical significance of dependent and independent variables. RESULT: The prevalence of husbands' involvement in skilled birth attendant service utilization was 84.2%. The age group of 25 to 29 years (AOR = 2.63, CI: 1.124-6.142), prior knowledge of skilled-delivery attendants (AOR = 2.75, CI: 1.456-5.205) and good attitude towards skilled birth attendants (AOR =2.46, CI: 1.227-4.948) were statistically significant determinants of husbands' involvement in skilled birth attendants service utilization. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION: This study revealed that the husbands' involvement in skilled birth attendants was high. Age, level of knowledge and attitude were the significant determinants of husbands' involvement in promoting skilled-delivery attendants. Therefore, improving husbands' level of knowledge and attitude towards skilled birth attendants is needed.

Magnitude and associated factors of stillbirth among women who gave birth at Hiwot Fana Specialized University Hospital, Harar, eastern Ethiopia.

INTRODUCTION: According to WHO, there are nearly 2 million stillbirths every year, one every 16 seconds. The objective of our study was to assess the frequency and associated factors of stillbirth among women who gave birth at Hiwot Fana Specialized University Hospital, Harar, eastern Ethiopia, 2021. METHODS: An institution-based retrospective cross-sectional study of medical records was conducted among 336 women who gave birth from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020. Maternal medical records were selected by systematic random sampling technique and a pre-tested checklist was used to collect data. Data entry and analysis were done using SPSS-version 20. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were performed to identify factors associated with stillbirth. Adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals are reported. RESULTS: The frequency of stillbirth was 12.5% (95% CI: 8.1-14.6). Preterm delivery (AOR=8.10; 95% CI: 3.01-21.79), non-booking for antenatal care (AOR=2.8; 95% CI: 1.14-6.88), antepartum hemorrhage (AOR=3.16; 95% CI: 1.10-9.04), obstructed labor (AOR=2.56; 95% CI: 1.85-7.93) and eclampsia (AOR=2.84; 95% CI: 1.45-6.98) were found to be statistically significantly associated with stillbirth. CONCLUSIONS: The frequency of stillbirth in this study was high. Prematurity, non-booking for antenatal care, ante-partum hemorrhage, obstructed labor and eclampsia were independently associated for stillbirth. Therefore, we recommend that the health professionals should better work on prevention of preterm birth, active emergency obstetrical and neonatal care by boosting focused antenatal care follow-up with health education on danger signs.