BACKGROUND:
Maternity waiting homes are temporary accommodations for pregnant women near healthcare facilities to wait in their last two weeks of pregnancy before giving birth. Global maternal mortality is high, with 42% of deaths due to delivery. Ethiopia's maternal death rate was 401 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2017, and the lack of skilled obstetrics contributes to high maternal and neonatal mortality. Studies have shown that maternity-waiting homes can reduce maternal and neonatal mortality. However, there is limited research done in the study area about the intention to use maternity waiting homes and their predictors.

OBJECTIVES:
-To assess intention to use maternity waiting home and its associated factors among pregnant women in Wayu Tuka District, Oromia Region, Western Ethiopia, 2024.

METHODS:
Community-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 418 pregnant women selected by using simple random sampling. Data was collected by face-to-face interview questionnaires. After checking its completeness, the data was coded and entered Epi info3.1 version and exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. Bivariable and multivariable analyses were used to see the association of outcome variables with independent variables. Multicollinearity was checked by a variation inflation factor, while model fitness was checked by Homers and Lem show.

RESULTS:
The proportion of women who had good intentions to use maternity waiting homes among pregnant women was 56.8 % (95% CI: 51.8-61.6). Having ever used maternity waiting home before [AOR = 0.85, (95% CI: 0.2-3.65)], attitude towards MWHs [AOR = 7.9, (95% CI: 2.7-23)], Subjective norms towards MWH [AOR = 5.97, (95% CI: 2.06-17.3)] and perceived behavioral control towards MWH [AOR = 0.87, (95% CI: 0.3-2.52)] were significantly associated with intention to use MWHs. Conclusion and Recommendation; -The finding of this study shows that more than half of pregnant women had good intention to use MWHs