BackgroundWorld health organization stated that postnatal care is defined as a care given to the mother and her newborn baby immediately after the birth of the placenta and for the first six weeks of life. Majority of maternal and neonatal deaths occur during childbirth and the postpartum period. Scaling up of maternal and newborn health through proper postnatal care services is the best way of reducing maternal and neonatal mortality.MethodA community based cross sectional study was conducted among 588 mothers who gave birth in the last one year from March 1–21; 2017. Systematic random sampling technique was used to select study participants. A pre-tested and structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data was entered in EPI info version 7 and analyzed using SPSS version 21. Logistic regression was applied to identify association between explanatory variables and the outcome variable. An adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval and p-value less than 0.05 was computed to determine the level of significance.ResultA total of 588 participants were included in the analysis which was the response rate of 100%.The prevalence of postnatal care service utilization in this study was 57.5%.Maternal educational status of secondary school and above (AOR = 3.29, 95%CI: 1.94–5.57), family monthly income of above 1500 ETB (AOR = 2.85, 95%CI: 1.21–6.68), alive birth outcome of last pregnancy (AOR = 5.70, 95%CI: 1.53–21.216), planned and supported last pregnancy (AOR = 3.94, 95%CI: 1.72–9.01) and institutional delivery of last pregnancy (AOR = 3.08, 95%CI: 1.24–7.68) were positively associated with PNC service utilization.ConclusionThis study showed that the overall utilization of PNC service in Debretabour town is low. Mothers’ education, monthly income, last pregnancy birth outcome, wantedness of the pregnancy and place of delivery were significantly associated with postnatal care service utilization. To enhance PNC service utilization and reduce maternal and neonatal mortality women should obtain appropriate education. Furthermore all pregnant women should give birth in the health facilities.

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Background: In many developing countries maternal morbidity and mortality are challenging issues. Increasing the knowledge of women about the danger signs of pregnancy is the first essential step to reduce the adverse outcomes of pregnancy and delay in deciding to seek obstetric care, which in turn improves early detection of obstetric complications. This study aimed to assess knowledge of danger signs of pregnancy and health-seeking action among pregnant women. Methods: A health facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted in public health facilities from 1 March 2017 to 30 April 2017 on 414 pregnant mothers. The data were collected by systematic random sampling technique, entered into a computer using Epi data 3.5, and analyzed using Statistical Package of Social Sciences version 20.0. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were done to estimate the crude and adjusted odds ratio with a confidence interval of 95% and a P value of less than 0.05 considered statistically significant. Results: This study identified that 57.2% of pregnant women had good knowledge of the danger signs of pregnancy. Pregnant women who are found in the age group of 25–29 [adjusted odds ratio (AOR)=3.35, 95% CI=1.13–9.96], and ≥30 years (AOR=8.11, 95% CI=2.23–29.45), mothers who live in urban area (AOR=5.26, 95% CI=1.96–14.15), primary education (AOR=4.85, 95% CI=2.07–11.41), secondary and above educational level (AOR=6.90, 95% CI=3.28–14.49), employed mother (AOR=5.18, 95% CI=1.65–16.27), being multigravida (AOR=7.24, 95% CI=3.86–13.58), knows that danger signs of pregnancy may cause severe complications (AOR=9.94, 95% CI=5.23–18.93), knew what to do if they faced danger signs of pregnancy (AOR=3.37, 95% CI=1.14–9.93), knew when did they go to a health facility if they faced danger signs of pregnancy (AOR=3.97, 95% CI=1.67–9.47) and faced at least one danger signs of pregnancy in current pregnancy (AOR = 5.40, 95% CI=1.46–19.99) were significantly associated with knowledge of danger signs of pregnancy. The proportion of mothers who experienced danger signs of pregnancy was 27 (6.5%) and among them, 21 (77.8%) had an appropriate health-seeking action, which is visiting a health facility. Conclusion: In this study area, the knowledge of pregnant women about the danger signs of pregnancy was low, while the practice of the mothers in response to danger signs of pregnancy was encouraging. Therefore, it is needed to the empowerment of women by increasing access to get an education, especially for rural women.