Essential Newborn Care Among Postnatal Mothers at Selected Health Centers in Eastern Province, Rwanda

Abstract

Background
 Rwanda's neonatal mortality rate is 20/1000 live births, and the country aims to meet the Sustainable Development Goal of 12 deaths per 1000 live births, or less, by 2030. Countries have decreased newborn deaths, infections, and intensive care unit admissions using the evidenced-based 'Essential Newborn Care' (ENC) guidelines established by the World Health Organization.
 Objective
 To assess postnatal mothers’ knowledge and practice of Essential Newborn Care in Kayonza District, Rwanda.
 Method
 A descriptive cross-sectional design was used to assess 192 postnatal mothers at the six-week vaccination services at two health facilities. Data collection using a valid questionnaire occurred from February 28 to March 2, 2019. Data analysis included descriptive and binary logistic regression.
 Results
 The majority (65.1%) had good ENC knowledge and practice, whereas a third (34.9%) had poor knowledge and practice. Significant gaps in ENC included timing of breastfeeding 33(17.2%), cord care 32(16.7%), and thermoregulation of small birth weight newborns 6(3.1%). Significant associations with ENC included maternal age (p=0.003), and ENC education postpartum (p=0.020).
 Conclusion
 The overall knowledge and practice of ENC are encouraging in this population, particularly with ENC education given postpartum, and older mothers. However, major gaps included evidenced-based cord care, thermoregulation, and breastfeeding, particularly among younger mothers.
 Rwanda J Med Health Sci 2020;3(2):139-151

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice towards Essential Newborn Care among Postnatal Mothers Attending Health Facilities in a Rural District, Eastern Uganda. A Cross-Sectional Community study

“…A similar nding was also reported in the United Arab Emirates [17] where the majority were found to have good knowledge of breastfeeding. However, the nding from this study is inconsistent with that in a study carried out in the Eastern province of Rwanda [18], where a signi cant knowledge gap on the timing of breastfeeding was identi ed. This study found out that the majority of the mothers initiated breastfeeding within the rst hour of life.…”

“…This is because of the known nutritional bene t to the infant. Early initiation of breastfeeding averts 22% of neonatal deaths [18].…”

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

“…This result supported by study done in Sudan where 91.7% of mothers aware on need of vaccine and 81% of mothers knew that vaccine prevents disease. 15 Regarding danger signs of newborn in present study, most common danger sign identified by respondents were red pus discharging umbilicus and surrounding red skin (94.7%), followed by on swollen eye sticky red or pus discharging eyes (93.4%), blister on skin (92.1%), baby cold to touch (88.1%), lethargic newborn (80.1%) and abnormal jerking movement (75%). Similar study conducted in Palpa Nepal revealed that, cent percent of respondents aware about unable to suck as neonatal danger signs followed by fever (99.1%), breathing difficulties and jaundice (88.2%), umbilical cord infection (83.6%), hypothermia (62.7%) and least number of respondents (18.2%) were aware about convulsion as a neonatal danger signs 16 .…”

Impact of health educational program for pregnant women on their knowledge regarding to postpartum and newborn care

“…Also, the result ~ 29 ~ disagrees with Bhattarai et al [20] , which reported that approximately 61.7% of postnatal moms were assessed to have a good knowledge base, whereas 39.3% were considered to have a weak base. At the same time, in the study conducted in Rwanda [21] , a survey of postpartum mothers indicated that 65.1% had strong knowledge while 34.9% had low knowledge. This disagreement may be due to Many of the respondents (84%), who seems to be at odds with one another, are themselves multigravida.…”