BACKGROUND:
Maternal morbidity and mortality resulting from the inappropriate use of maternal health services are becoming a major public threat. There is a dearth of data on maternal services in socially marginalized communities, such as the "Gafat Bete Israel" community. Therefore, this study aims to explore the barriers to using maternal health care services among the "Gafat Bete Israel" social minority groups in the Central Ethiopia Regional State.

METHODS:
A phenomenological study was conducted with 98 women from the “Gafat Bete Israel” social minority groups in the Hadiya zone. Of the 98 women, 84 were approached for focus group discussions (FGD), while 14 participated in in-depth interviews (IDI). We used the OpenCode 3.2 computer program to process the data.

RESULTS:
Four themes emerged from the data explaining the barriers hindering access to and uptake of maternal health services. These include individual, family, community-level barriers, and health system barriers. Low self-esteem, lack of awareness, preference for traditional practices, distrust of health care providers, and financial constraints were among the identified individual-level obstacles. In addition, lack of minority-focused maternal health programs, male domination, gender norms, and stigma were also noted as obstacles to the use of maternal health care.

CONCLUSIONS:
Social discrimination, low self-esteem, low awareness of the benefits of health services, and distrust of health care providers are the main barriers to uptake of maternal health services among social minority groups. Therefore, it is necessary to implement multimodal interventions to improve the utilization of maternal health services among socioeconomic minority groups.