Introduction: Institutional delivery service utilization is essential to improve maternal and child health. According
to Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey 2005 and 2011, the proportion of women utilizing institutional delivery
service in the country is very low. In Oromia Region about 60.5% of the eligible mothers didn’t received Antenatal
Care service and 91.5% of the mothers gave birth at home in the region. The aim of the study was to assess the
home delivery and associated factors among reproductive age group women in Shashemene town, Ethiopia.
Patients and methods: Community based cross sectional study design was utilized. The study was conducted
from March 01 to March 31st. House to house census was conducted to identify the eligible mothers and a sampling
frame was developed. Using simple random sampling technique 285 mothers were selected. Descriptive statistics
was employed to describe each variables and logistic regression to determine the association between predictor
variables and outcome variable. With 95% confidence interval p value less than 0.05 was considered as a significant
variables.
Results: 224 (81%) of the respondents gave birth in the health facility of which 36 (16.1%) of them were at health
center, 165 (73.7%) at hospital and the remaining 23 (10.2%) at health post. From those mothers who gave birth at
home, 53 (19%), 26 (49.1%) was delivered by their mothers, 20 (37.7%) by neighbors and, 7 (13.2%) was health
extension workers. The main reason mentioned for home delivery by 40 (75.5%) was no labor pain and 3 (5.7%)
mentioned lack of receiving adequate delivery services from health professionals and 8 (15.1%) was due to lack
of knowledge about the importance to delivering in health institution. Antenatal care, educational status, husband
educational status, marital status and receiving health education on maternal health showed an association with
place of delivery.
Conclusion: The study showed that home delivery was lower in women who were educated, utilized antenatal
care, and received health education on maternal health. Therefore, improving maternal educational status, providing
adequate information about maternal health through media and encourage to take antenatal care is essential to
reduce the prevalence of home delivery