Background:-Maternal mortality in Ethiopia is one of the highest in the world. According to the 2005 demographic and health survey the maternal mortality rate was 673/100,000. Far more many women also suffer from complications of pregnancy and delivery and maternal health care service utilization is far below the acceptable level. An effort has been made in this study to assess the effect of socio-demographic factors on utilization of maternal health care services.

Methods: - Data was taken from the 2005 Ethiopian demographic and health survey which is a nationally representative survey of women in the 15-49 years age groups. Women who had at least one child in the three years before the survey were included in the analysis. To estimate the effect of the socio-demographic variables on maternal health service utilization two outcome variables were used which were use of antenatal care services and use of assistance during delivery by health professional. Then logistic regression technique was used to estimate models of the outcome variables. Separate models were also done for the urban and rural women since this group differ in many ways. In addition to this a probability model was done to estimate the probability of use of the services by selected variables from the logistic regression model.

Result:-The result showed that only 30% of the women received antenatal care while 11% received assistance during delivery from health professional. Utilization of these services was very low among rural women as compared to those living in urban areas. In the logistic regression model educational status of the mother, household wealth, place of residence, birth order of the child and educational and occupational status of the husband were found to be strong indicators of utilization in the total sample of women. Antenatal care use was found to be a strong indicator of use of assistance during delivery. The effect of this indicator variables vary according to place of residence. In the urban women household wealth, sex of household head and occupation of the husband had no effect on both antenatal care and use of assistance during delivery. Birth order and sex of
household head were not significantly related with antenatal care use in the rural women and education of the mother was not found to be significantly related with use of delivery assistance in the rural sample.

Conclusion:-To increase women’s utilization of health care services and improve maternal health in Ethiopia some crucial steps should be taken on educating women and strengthening antenatal care services. Great attention should be given to the most vulnerable group of women in the country this includes those who are living in rural areas with no education and in the low economic status group.