Utilization of facility-based delivery services among postnatal adolescent mothers aged 10-19 years attending the young child clinic, Namayingo District, Uganda

Abstract

Background: Approximately, 13% of adolescent girls give birth before 18 years, with about 12 million of them giving birth every year, and 2 million giving birth before 15 years in low-income countries contributing 11% of all births globally. Objective: The study aimed at determining the level of utilization, factors associated and facilitators and barriers to utilization of facility-based delivery services among postnatal adolescent mothers, aged 10-19 years attending the young child clinic, Namayingo district. Methods: A cross-sectional convergent parallel mixed methods study design was used. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected simultaneously and analyzed separately, and the findings from the parallel quantitative and qualitative data were triangulated at interpretation and discussion. Result: There was an overall 78.45% prevalence in the utilization of facility-based delivery services among the adolescent mothers aged 10-19 years in Namayingo; this showed an increase in the utilization compared to the 53% reported by UBOS in 2018. A number of explanatory factors were associated with the utilization of facility-based delivery services; and these were, family support, marital status, ANC attendance, risk of complications, and intention to get pregnant. Conclusion and recommendation: The proportion of utilization of facility-based delivery services among adolescent mothers aged 10-19 years is 78.45% slightly higher than the anticipated of 53%. Factors associated with this prevalence were marital status, family support, ANC attendance, risk of complications and intention to get pregnant. A community-based study focusing on all postnatal adolescent mothers needs to be conducted to produce more quality and representative results.