Husbands' involvement and women’s utilization of maternal healthcare in Sidama zone, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Husband involvement is an important intervention for improving maternal health, and is considered as a crucial step in scaling up women’s use of prenatal care. The idea of men’s involvement in reproductive health was first emerged at Cairo’s conference in 1994. Nevertheless, to implement this idea into practice several challenges have been faced. Even today, emphasis has not been given to the concept of men involvement in maternal health in most developing countries. Until recently, there is limited evidence of husbands’ involvement and its contribution for women’s use of skilled maternity care in Ethiopia, a country with low coverage of maternal health care but with high maternal and neonatal mortality. Therefore, there is a need to generate contextual evidence for policy formulation, designing and implementing programs that remove barriers and to promote husbands’ involvement in maternal health care.