Factors Influencing Utilization of Postnatal Care Services among Mothers in Juba Teaching Hospital.

Abstract

Background: Postnatal care service which is one of the key components of maternal health has a substantive impact on key health indicators. Post natal services utilization is very low in most of the sub-Saharan African with poor maternal health. Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the factors that influence utilization of postnatal care services in Juba teaching hospital in the Republic of South Sudan so as to reduce the high Maternal and neonatal mortality rates, and to set up ways of making postnatal care utilization more effective at the hospital, and the health centers in the country. Method: A descriptive cross sectional study was employed to assess the factors that influence utilization of postnatal care services in Juba teaching hospital. A total of 195 mothers who attend Maternal and child health clinic in Juba teaching hospital were included in this study using non probability, convenient sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 16. Result: From the assessment, majority of the respondents, 32.82% were in the range of 30-34 years, 73.85% were married, most of them preferred health workers compared to TBAs. Only 13.3 % of the respondents utilized postnatal care services. 74.38% attended PNC because they were told to do so, 85.25% of them utilized immunization services. The religion of the mother, quality of the maternal services and reason why mothers attend PNC showed statistical association with postnatal care service utilization with 0.05(0.059, 0.629), <0.001(0.060, and 0.446, <0.001(725925.6, 8.050) respectively. Conclusion: Utilization of post natal services is low affected by religion of the mother, quality of maternal service and reasons why a mother utilized PNC Services. Hence, providing adequate information of the services and improving on the quality of services are recommended to improve the problems of poor utilization of postnatal services.