**Abstract**

Institutional delivery is the foundation for diminishing maternal mortality. Evidence showed that community-based behavioral change interventions are increasing institutional delivery in developing countries. By understanding this, the government of Ethiopia launched a community-based intervention called "pregnant women's conferences" to improve institutional delivery. This study was conducted to assess its effectiveness on institutional delivery among 871 women who gave birth within the last 12 months (435: pregnant women's conference attendants and 436: pregnant women's conference non-attendants) in 2017. It was a community-based comparative cross-sectional study and participants were selected using a multistage-simple random sampling technique. A structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. The result showed that institutional delivery among women who attended pregnant women's conferences was 54.3% (95%CI: 49.9–59.1), higher compared with 39.9% (95%CI: 35.3%- 44.7%) of women who did not attend the conference. Likewise, the level of well-preparedness for birth was higher among women who attended the conference (P = 38.9%, 95%CI: 33.8–43.7), compared with their counterparts (P = 25.7%, 95% CI: 22.2–29.4). Similarly, women's knowledge of obstetric danger signs was higher among women who attended the conference. Therefore, encouraging pregnant women to attend the conference should be strengthened.

**Keywords:** Pregnant women's conference, effect, pregnant, institutional delivery, Northwest, Ethiopia
