Background: Globally, 2.5 million children died in the first month of life with (98%) of these deaths occurring in developing countries in 2018. Approximately, 7,000 neonatal deaths occurred every day and most of which close to three quarters dying on the first day. Most of the study conducted on essential newborn care practice were at health facility, which didn’t represent the home delivered mothers. Objective: To assess essential newborn care practices and associated factors among mothers who had live birth neonate in Simada woreda, South Gondar, North West Ethiopia, 2019. Methods: A community based cross-sectional study design was conducted on September, 2019. A total of 601 mothers were selected using systematic random sampling technique for study. The sample size was calculated using prevalence of essential newborn care practice after checking using both prevalence and factors associated with newborn care practice. An interview using structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Descriptive statistics was used to describe data. Both bi-variable and multivariable binary logistic regression models was used to determine factors associated with essential newborn care practice and the strength of association was measured by odd ratios with 95% CI at p-value of < 0.05. Result: The study revealed that the prevalence of essential newborn care practice was 54.2% (95% CI between 50%-58%). Mothers who had primary, secondary and college and above educational level were more likely to practice essential newborn care as compared to mothers unable to read and write respectively [ AOR=2.62, 95% CI (1.25, 5.52), AOR=2.13, 95% CI (1.14, 3.97) and AOR=2.25, 95% CI (1.22, 4.14)]. Mothers who had ANC follow-up were more likely to practice ENBC as compared with mothers who had not ANC follow up [AOR=0.403, 95% CI (0.237, 0.686)]. Maternal knowledge on essential newborn care and newborn danger sign were statistically significant association with essential newborn care practice [ AOR=3.93, 95% CI (2.09, 7.37 and AOR=2.03, 95% CI (1.25, 3.29)]. Conclusion: The study showed that the prevalence of essential newborn care practice is low even though majority of the mothers practiced individual cares. Key words: Essential Newborn care, Practices, Simada Woreda