Background: Maternal mortality is the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age in most of the developing world. Globally, an estimated 300,000 women die as a result of Complications related with pregnancy each year. Health facility delivery is one of the recommended approaches in order to reduce maternal and child mortality rates. Understanding the reasons for choosing institutional delivery helps achieving universal coverage.
Methods: a qualitative study design was implemented to collect the required data from pregnant women in Gullele sub-city of Addis Ababa. Data was collected using semi-structured interview guide questions based on predefined themes. The data was then transcribed in Amharic then translated to English and coded based on the themes using NVivo Version 10.
Result: a total of 19 women were interviewed and the result showed that awareness about institutional delivery, providers /professionals/ approach, accessibility and availability of materials at health facilities, fear of delivery complication recalling friends or families previous experience, lack of trust on traditional birth attendant and free of charge delivery services at institution level were mentioned as the most important factors for choosing institutional delivery. On the other hand, fear of exposing body to unfamiliar persons, previous normal delivery at home, negligence by health professionals and fear of students who practice at the health institutions were regarded as impeding factors to attend institutional delivery.
Conclusion: provider approach, provision of respectful and supportive care, awareness about institutional delivery were among the main factors, so proper counseling of mothers and partners about the importance of health facility delivery, good communication, interactive approach to mothers, awareness creation and linking mothers to health facility for delivery by health extension workers should be improved. Key words: - Health facility delivery, traditional birth attendant, enabling factors, skilled delivery