Factors Associated with Post-Natal Care Use among Post-Delivery Women in Bugesera District, Eastern Province, Rwanda, 2015

Maternal mortality is unacceptably high, approximately 30-40 % of direct maternal deaths in Africa are due to hemorrhage, mostly in the postpartum period. Such problems can be detected and treated through proper follow up visits for women during the postpartum period. This study aimed to identify the factors associated with postnatal care services utilization in Bugesera District. This was a cross-sectional study, consisted of 168 women who gave birth from July to December 2015 and 5 heads of health centers in Bugesera District. Data was collected using questionnaires and key informants interview. Study subjects were selected per health center was determined proportionate to number of deliveries each of the facilities had conducted. The selected mothers were reached in their respective villages. Analysis was conducted using stata, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were computed to determine statistical association between the outcome variable and independent variables using Odds Ration, significant of statistical association were tested using 95 % confidence interval (CI) and p value (less than 0.05). The findings of this study showed that the utilization of postnatal care is 42.26 %. It highlighted also that factors associated with the use of postnatal care services are age, educations, socio economic class ubudehe category, ANC visits, mode of delivery, the fact that last born is alive or not, being informed about PNC and understanding the necessity of the PNC. The study also revealed that it is necessary to build health posts in remote areas far away from health centers to facilitate population to seeking PNC services and to enhance the sensitization of mothers on the use of PNC service.