Author: Simegnew Asrie, Graduate Ethiopia Field Epidemiology Training Program, Addis Ababa health bureau, Department of Public Health emergency management.

Contact address: simegnewasriesw@gmail.com

Introduction: Early starting Antenatal care is key indicator to identify risk factors in pregnancy and to improve maternal and child health. Many pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa start antenatal care attendance late. In Ethiopia early initiation of antenatal care was low. However, the evidence on the problem yielded inconsistent findings which is difficult to establish a conclusion.

Objective: To assess timing and factors associated with first antenatal care visiting among pregnant women attending antenatal care in public health facilities in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Methods: Institution based cross sectional study was conducted from October 29 to November 30, 2017 by using pre-tested and interviewer administer semi-structured questionnaire. Pregnant women were interviewed at exit from antenatal clinic those attending antenatal care service at selected public health centers using systematic Sampling technique. Data was checked for completeness, cleaned manually and entered in to EPI INFO 7 and exported to SPSS 21 for further analysis. Multivariable logistic regression model was used to predict initiation time and associated factors .Odds ratio and 95% CI was used to measure strength of associations.

Result: Of 597 participant, 42% of them were age group of 25-29 with Median age of 25yrs (IQR 23-29). Among them 253(42.4%) pregnant mothers initiated early (≤12 weeks). Getting information from friends (AOR=1.81(1.16, 2.83)), deciding to initiate first ANC visit by their own (AOR=9.84 ((4.04, 23.98)), family size less than three (AOR=1.88(1.01, 3.49)) and age of 30-34 years (AOR=0.142(0.053, 0.379)) were found to be statistical significant factors for timely initiation.

Conclusion and recommendation: Proportion of pregnant mothers who practiced timely initiation of first ANC is low. Getting information from friends, deciding to initiate first ANC visit by their own, family size <3 were associated factors. Improving initiation of first ANC visit by providing accurate information, maintain appropriate family size through strengthen family planning program.

Key words: Initiation time, Antenatal care, Factors, Addis Ababa, 2017.