Introduction: The recent coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has had a disastrous effect on the health care delivery system mainly pregnancy related health care. In order to fill information gap in the scientific literature and in response to the limited evidence in the country, this study aims to assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on antenatal care utilization among pregnant women attending public facilities in North east Ethiopia. Therefore, the result will be beneficial to design strategies for prioritizing maternal healthcare even with the COVID-19 pandemic period.

Objective: this study aims to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on antenatal care utilization among pregnant women attending public facilities in Northeast Ethiopia

Methods: A facility based cross-sectional study was conducted from February 01 to August 30, 2020 among pregnant women attending ANC services at public hospitals in North east Ethiopia. Thus, a total of 389 women were included in the study with simple random sampling technique. The bi-variable and multi-variable logistic regression model was employed to identify factors significantly associated with ANC utilization. Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with 95%CI was estimated to show the strength of association. Finally, a p-value of <0.05 in the multivariable logistic regression analysis were used to identify predictors of antenatal care utilization. 

Result: Overall, 114 (29.3%) of pregnant women were fully utilized antenatal care services during the pandemic period. Mother age ≥ 35 years (AOR=11.79, 95%CI:1.18,117.8), secondary education and above(AOR=4.74, 95%CI:1.04, 21.61), history of stillbirth before recent pregnancy (AOR=0.007, 95%CI:0.001, 0.12), interruption and diversion of services due to COVID-19 response (AOR=0.675 95%CI: 0.142, 0.742), fear of COVID-19 (AOR=0.13, 95% CI:0.06, 0.31), and  lack of transport access (AOR=4.15, 95%CI:1.04,16.54) were predictors of full antenatal care service utilization.

Conclusion: Three of every ten pregnant women who attended to the obstetric outpatient clinics have fully utilized the antenatal care services. Encouraging women’s educational status, prioritize maternal health services during COVID-19 and improving the quality of ANC service should be more emphasized.

Keywords: Antenatal care, utilization, COVID-19, pregnant women, North east Ethiopia