Background : For all women of reproductive age, especially for pregnant women, rnutilization of health care services is a key proximate determinant of maternal and infant rnoutcomes, including maternal and infant mortality. It is evident that timely antenatal care rnis an opportunity to prevent the direct causes of maternal mortalities and reduction of rnfetal and neonatal deaths related to obstetric complications rn rnObjective: To assess factors that contributes for late initiation of antenatal care among pregnant rnwomen attending ANC Clinics in public health centers in Kembata Timbaro Zone, SNNPR, rnEthiopia. rnMethod: A facility based cross-sectional study with supplement of qualitative study design was rncarried out to collect data from 401 pregnant women who were attending antenatal care service rnat five randomly selected governmental health centres in Kembata Timbaro zone. Pretested and rnstructured questionnaire was used to collect the data & data were entered onto a computer using rnEpi-info 3.5.1 statistical program then exported to SPSS Windows version 16.0 for further rnanalysis. OR & 95% CI was used to measure the associations. rn rnResults: This study showed that prevalence of late entry to antenatal care was 68.6%. The mean rntiming was 5.5 +rn 1.8 months. Multivariate analysis revealed that Age, maternal education, family rnincome, parity, previous utilization of ANC and type of pregnancy remained significant factors rninfluencing late booking. rnConclusion rn The findings of this study showed that most women book ANC late. This seems to be because rnantenatal care is viewed primarily as curative rather than preventive in the study population. rnPublic enlightenment, health education coupled with women empowerment would be helpful in rnreducing the problem. In addition to that research is needed to determine the best approaches for rnhealth education programmes to correct the misconceptions about antenatal care.