Awareness Regarding Care of Newborn among Post Natal Mothers in Teaching Hospital Lalitpur

Abstract

Background: Neonatal period is the critical time for extra uterine adjustment. During this crucial period of life they need to provide appropriate care including warmth, normal breathing, hygiene, skin care, immunization, care of umbilical cord and early exclusive breast feeding to improve the survival of children. The aim of this study is to identify the level of awareness regarding care of newborn among post-natal mother in Patan hospital. Method: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted among 76 post-natal mothers using purposive sampling technique. Data was collected between “16th to 29 of January 2022” by using self- developed structure interview questionnaire. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 in descriptive statistic and inferential statistic Results: The result of the study revealed that 52.6% of respondents had good awareness, 47.4% had poor awareness regarding care of newborn. Majority of respondents had adequate awareness on exclusive breastfeeding, maintaining hand hygiene, immunization and bathing. While only 22.4% of respondents were aware about demand feeding and 30.3% aware on neonatal jaundice. Most of respondents received four times ANC services. There was significant association between type of family and level of awareness on newborn care where p value 0.036. However, there was no significant association between age, education, occupation, and complete ANC visit with awareness on newborn care with p value >0.05 at 5% level of significance. Conclusion: This study concludes that more than half of respondents’ had adequate level of awareness. This finding shows that to improve the awareness on newborn care they need an antenatal education for primi para mother. Key words: awareness, newborn care, post-natal mother