Background: Birth weight is a good indicator of the newbornâ€Ÿs chances for survival, long-term health, growth, and psychosocial development. Low birth weight increases the risk for certain adulthood chronic disorders which may increase risk of morbidity and mortality. The present study was intended to determine the effect of maternal characteristics during pregnancy on birth weight of neonates in health facilities.rnObjective: to determine the effect of maternal characteristics during pregnancy on birth weight of neonates and occurrence of LBW in private and public health facilities of Addis Ababa.rnMethods: A facility based cross sectional study was conducted on a total of 881women coming to health facility seeking delivery service. The study was performed in selected public and private health facilities of the city from February to march 2016. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire in a face to face interview. Data concerning condition of the mother during time of pregnancy were also collected by reviewing antenatal care (ANC) chart. Epi-Info version 7.0 and stata version 12 was used for data entry and analysis .Univarate analysis was used to measure the magnitude of LBW, Bivariate analysis was used to assess the strength of an association between low birth weight and list of independent variables and test significance of the association. Multivariate logistic regression model was used to identify the important determinants by controlling for possible confounding variables and statistical significance was considered at p-value