Abstract

Introduction: Childhood mortality often used as a specific health indicator where child health programs were given low attention; especially neonatal health lacks adequate information in the study setup. This study aimed to assess neonatal mortality and factors affecting health care utilization.
Methods: A cross sectional study design was employed in Lume District using Multistage sampling technique. Five rural kebele (sub unit of administration) were selected using simple random sampling and systematic random sampling technique to select study population. Structured questionnaire used to collect data and analyzed by SPSS version 20.
Result: Nineteen neonatal death per one thousand live birth happened. Mothers who live in urban were two times sought health institution for delivery than rural mothers [AOR=1.9, 95% CI: (1.1, 4.0)]. Merchant mothers were three times more likely to seek professional help than daily laborer [AOR=3.0, 95% CI: (1.1, 14.5). Mothers who road was accessible were 2.8 times more likely to seek health institution for their neonate than non-road accessible mother [AOR=2.8, 95% CI: (1.2, 6.4). Neonatal sickness and neonatal death were negatively associated with mothers seeking health institution [AOR=0.02, 95% CI: (0.1, .02) and [AOR=0.07, 95% CI: (.01, .8) respectively.
Conclusion and recommendation: In this study it is learnt that neonatal mortality is low and institutional delivery was high. Road accessibility, residence, occupation of the mother, neonatal sickness, neonatal death and postnatal care were significantly associated with utilization of mother’s modern health institution for last delivery.

Keywords: Antenatal care; Neonatal mortality; Institutional delivery; Prenatal care; Ethiopia