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Background: Pregnant women who had full antenatal care follow-up are expected to give birth in health facilities. However, in Ethiopia, after full antenatal care booking, many women still prefer to give birth at home. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore and describe why women give childbirth at home after full antenatal care follow-up in the study setting. Methods: Exploratory-descriptive qualitative design was conducted in Humbo and Abala Abaya districts, Southern Ethiopia, from June to September 2020. Nine in-depth interviews and four focus group discussions were held with purposively selected participants. Women who gave birth at home after attending equal to or more than four antenatal care appointments in the last year were included. The collected data were majorly analyzed by inductive thematic analysis technique, but deductive analysis was also applied whenever the potential themes needed further enrichment. A thick description of the findings is done in the respective heading and sub-heading using participants' verbatim quotations. Results: A total of 9 in-depth interviews and four focus group discussions comprising 35 participants was conducted. Three major themes and nine sub-themes emerged from the data. Socio-cultural and community influences, socio-economic obstacles, and health system-related barriers are the major themes identified. Traditional practices, personal beliefs, social norms, knowledge, and attitude about institutional delivery, household economic capability, decision-making capacity of the women, delivery service quality, and service providers related barriers are the sub-themes defining the home delivery experience of women after full antenatal care follow-up in the study setting. Conclusion: In this study, socio-economic, cultural, and health system-related barriers are major reasons for home delivery. Improvement of public awareness on the risk of home delivery and elimination of its facilitative social norms, empowerment of women's economic, educational, and decision-making capability and healthcare workers' and health facilities' capacity are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Maternal mortality rates are unacceptably high in Ethiopia. Institutional delivery with skilled care of the mother is one of the interventions proven to reduce the risk of complications that can cause maternal and neonatal mortality. Quality of service given during antenatal visits and childbirth are important measures. The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of skilled institutional delivery and its repeat use during a subsequent pregnancy and to identify any reasons why women avoid institutional delivery. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March to June 2012 in Chilga Woreda, Northwest Ethiopia. Data were collected from women who gave birth during the year preceding the survey. Information was entered and cleaned using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Multivariate and binary logistic regression was used to identify the relative effect of each explanatory variable on the outcome. Results: A total of 402 (84.2%) women gave birth at home. Previous experience of skilled institutional delivery had a limited role in subsequent acceptance or use of institutional delivery. Most mothers who had previously had institutional delivery gave birth at home. Although 111 (40.8%) women visited the health facility during their pregnancy only because of illness, 184 (38.8%) did not know when to visit for antenatal care. In multivariate analysis, lower maternal education, being a rural resident, previous use of institutional delivery, remoteness of the health facility, and multiparity were factors significantly associated with less likelihood of institutional delivery. Number of months pregnant at the time of the first antenatal visit had no role in increasing the likelihood of institutional delivery. Conclusion: The quality of the obstetric services presently available for women living in Ethiopia needs review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]