Pregnant Mothers' Preference of Health Professionals’ Gender for Birth Attendant and Its Associated Factors Among Women Who Visit for Antenatal Care at Selected Public Health Institutions in Debre Birhan, Ethiopia, 2024

Background Globally, Maternal mortality is unacceptably high. About 287,000 women died during and following pregnancy and childbirth in 2020. Almost 95% of all maternal deaths occurred in low and lower-middle-income countries in 2020. Low maternal health care service utilization has been considered one of the factors that resulted in the slow progression of maternal mortality reduction in programs. Mother’s gender preference for obstetrics care is an important issue to promote maternal health care service utilization. Objective To assess pregnant mothers’ preference of health professionals’ gender for birth attendants and its associated factors among women who visit for ANC at selected public health institutions in Debre Birhan, Ethiopia, 2024. Methods An institution-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 396 pregnant mothers attending ANC at selected public health institutions in Debre Birhan town who were selected by a systematic random sampling method from July 8 to August 8, 2024. Data was collected by face-to-face interviews with a structured questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 25. To identify the existence of an association between the dependent variable and independent variables, bivariate logistic regression at 95% CI and p-value < = 0.05 was used. Results Among mothers attending antenatal care, 188 (47.5) %) have a preference of gender for the birth attendant. Mothers who have no formal education were 5.5 times more likely to have a preference for gender for the birth attendant, AOR 5.503(1.806.16.767). Mothers who lived in rural areas were 2.72 times more likely to have preference AOR 2.728(1.049,7.093). Mothers who were delivered previously by SVD were 14.4 times more likely to have a preference. Mothers who were delivered by assisted delivery were 2.99 times more likely to have a preference. Mothers who had given birth before were 5.594 times more likely to have a preference, AOR 5.594(1.990, 15.724) Conclusion A high proportion of mothers have a preference for the gender of the birth attendant. Mothers who have a strong inclination to gender preference are those who have no formal education, who delivered spontaneous vaginal delivery previously, are nulliparous, and who live in rural areas.