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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1452254
This article is part of the Research Topic Public Health Promotion and Medical Education Reform, Volume III View all 22 articles

Half of the mothers had poor delivery referral practices in public hospitals of Bahir Dar City Northwest, Ethiopia

Provisionally accepted
Desta Debalkie Atnafu Desta Debalkie Atnafu 1,2*Amare Fenta Amare Fenta 3Habtamu Alganeh Guadie Habtamu Alganeh Guadie 2,4
  • 1 Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
  • 2 School of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health sciences, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Amhara Region, Ethiopia
  • 3 Other, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
  • 4 School of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health sciences, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Policy makers and stakeholders may benefit from understanding maternal delivery referral practices as they develop efficient mechanisms to implement appropriate referral linkage.However, the practice of maternal delivery referral is not well known. This study aims to assess maternal referral practices and associated factors among laboring mothers referred to public hospitals of Bahir Dar city, Northwest, Ethiopia.In the hospitals of the city of Bahir Dar, a facility-based cross-sectional survey was carried out from March 1 to March 30, 2021. A total of 358 mothers who came by referral to give birth at the public hospitals in Bahir Dar were interviewed using a pre-tested questionnaire that was presented by an interviewer. Data was coded, and inputted to Epi-data version 3.1 software, and after being transferred, analyzed using SPSS version 25. The associated factors linked to poor maternal referral practices were identified using bi-variable and multivariable logistic regressions. The p-value cutoff of 0.05 was ultimately determined to be statistically significant.Results: A total of 353 study participants took part in the study. The level of poor maternal referral practice was 52.7% (95% CI 47%, 58%). The mean age of the respondents was 26.73 (+ 5.45) years. Twenty eight percent of the mothers were illiterate. Unable to read and write (AOR=2.38, 95%CI: 1.15, 4.94), read and write only (AOR=6.59, 95%CI: 2.53, 17.17), monthly income < 1527 birr (AOR=4.55, 95%CI: 1.91, 10.84), monthly income between 1527-3000 birr (AOR=4.29, 95%CI: 1.76, 10.50), and monthly income between 3001-5305 birr (AOR=3.73, 95%CI: 1.49,9.33), referred from referral hospitals (AOR = 4.63, 95%CI: 1.94, 11.07), gave birth via cesarean section (AOR = 2.06, 95%CI: 1.22, 3.47), gave birth via assisted delivery (AOR = 4.77, 95%CI: 1.64, 13.91), and time spent more than one hour to arrive to Bahir Dar city public hospitals (AOR = 2.15, 95%CI: 1.07, 4.34) were significantly associated with poor maternal referral practice.Poor maternal referral practices were widespread. The use of maternal referrals was influenced by obstetric, social, environmental, and demographic factors. The poor maternal referral practices during labor should receive the most attention from mothers who have low monthly incomes and do not attend formal education.

    Keywords: Referral practice, laboring mother, Poor practice, Bahir Dar city, Ethiopia

    Received: 20 Jun 2024; Accepted: 27 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Atnafu, Fenta and Guadie. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Desta Debalkie Atnafu, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

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