Reviewer ’s report  
Title: Postnatal Care Utilization among Urban Women in Nor thern Ethiopia: Cross -Sectional 
Survey  
 
Version: 0 Date: 18 Jan 2017  
 
Reviewer: Mats Malqvist  
 
Reviewer's report:  
Thank you for letting me review this paper. This is a cross -sectional survey investigating post -
natal care in Tigray, Ethiopia. The methodology is straight -forward but has some question marks. 
Firstly, the sampling is a bit confusing. The authors want to m easure PNC utilization among 
women who come to a clinic for PNC? The terms are not very well defined and it is confusing to 
the reader. First impression is that all interviewed women come for PNC, thus rate would be 
100%, as it is stated in Methods study w as conducted among all women who visited clinics for 
PNC. Then in Results it is stated that 32% utilized PNC and in Figure 1 there are 38% coming 
for PNC follow -up, indicating that they have utilized PNC, and are not all reasons in Figure 1 
PNC utilization ? So the question is how the sample was selected and collected. If it was so that 
all women coming to health facility were selected, were then only mothers selected (since Table 
2 state that all had children)? And if only mothers, how long since last child  birth? In conclusion, 
the sampling and selection of participants needs to be much clearer.  
 
To measure knowledge is tricky and it is important not to ask leading questions. I would need to 
see the survey tool to assess this properly. As it is stated curr ently it seems like women were 
asked "Do you know about this or that?" which is not  an appropriate way to measure 
knowledge. In Table 2 the results on knowledge are also not clear, what does "Do you know 
times of PNC?" mean, and "Source of information" ab out what?  
 
Same thing with Table 4; impossible to assess methodology if not having survey tool. How was 
this data collected?  
 
Introduction is a bit too general and not enough directed towards the research question, 
especially the section on maternal mortal ity is a bit superfluous.  
 
In general there are a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes that put down the overall impression 
of the manuscript, please correct.  
 
Are the methods appropriate and well described?  
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.  
No 
Does the work include the necessary controls?  
If not, please specify which controls are required in your comments to the authors.  
No 
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the data shown?  
If not,  please explain in your comments to the authors.  
No 
Are you able to assess any statistics in the manus cript or would you recommend an 
additional statistical review?  
If an addition al statistical review is recommended, please speci fy what aspects require further 
assessment in your comments to the editors.  
I am able to assess the statistics  
Quality of written English  
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:  
Not suitable for publication unless extens ively edited  
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