Introduction: A newborn has limited capacity to maintain temperature when exposed to cold environments. Therefore it is important to maintain newborn in optimal thermal environment. Neonatal hypothermia carries higher case fatality rate when concurrently occurs with other neonatal problems. Neonatal hypothermia is common neonatal problem.Objectives: This study assessed neonatal thermal care practices and beliefs among rural women in west Guji Zone, south Ethiopia. Methods and Materials: A community based cross sectional study combined with qualitative study was undertaken in rural areas of west Guji Zone. Randomly selected 388 rural mothers of infants less than 6 months old were participated in quantitative study. Three focus group discussions and three in-depth interviews were conducted among mothers of infants less than 6 months old; and grandmothers and traditional birth attendants respectively. Quantitative data was collected by using structured and pretested Afaan Oromo version questionnaire adapted from relevant literatures. Qualitative data was collected by in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The qualitative data was cleaned, coded and analyzed by SPSS version 20. Qualitative data was analyzed by thematic approach. Results: Out of 423 women planned for the study, 388 women were successfully interviewed and included into the analysis. In general rural women believe in importance of newborn thermal protection. The findings show that approximately 75% and 85% of women dried and wrapped their newborns respectively after delivery. However in study area drying and wrapping newborn are usually done after first newborn bath. Just over 84% of women bathed their newborns in less than 6 hours of delivery and majority of them used warm water for the bathing. About 69.1% and 57.7% of women put head cover to their newborns immediately after birth and initiated breast feeding within one hour of delivery respectively. Skin to skin care of newborn is non-existent in study area and perceived as odd, frightening and potential dangerous practice. Conclusion: Studied women practice some of recommended neonatal thermal care and believe in their importance in keeping newborn warm. However practice and believes about delayed first bath is against standard recommendation, whereas skin to skin care is non-existent and perceivably odd practice.

A newborn has a limited capacity to maintain temperature when exposed to cold environment. Neonatal hypothermia, a common neonatal problem, carries high case fatality rate particularly if concurrently occurs with other neonatal problems. This study assessed neonatal thermal care practices and beliefs among rural women in west Guji Zone, south Ethiopia. A community based cross sectional quantitative study combined with qualitative study was undertaken in rural areas of west Guji Zone, Ethiopia. Randomly selected 388 rural mothers of infants less than 6 months old were participated in the quantitative study. Three focus group discussions were conducted among mothers of infants less than 6 months old. Quantitative data were collected by using structured and pretested Afaan Oromo version questionnaire adapted from relevant literatures. Qualitative data were collected by focus group discussion guide. The quantitative data were cleaned, coded and analyzed by SPSS version 20. Qualitative data were transcribed, translated, coded, and analyzed by thematic analysis approach. In general rural women believe that thermal protection of newborn is important. The findings show that approximately 75% and 85% of newborns were dried and wrapped respectively after delivery. However drying and wrapping of newborn are usually done after the first newborn’s bath. Just over 84% of newborns were bathed within the first 6 hours of delivery and majority of them were bathed with warm water. About 69.1% and 57.7% of women put head cover to their newborns immediately after birth, and initiated breast feeding within one hour of delivery respectively. Skin to skin care of newborn is non-existent in the study area and perceived as an odd, frightening and potentially dangerous practice. Studied women practice some of the recommended neonatal thermal cares and believe in their importance in keeping newborn warm. However, practice and beliefs about delayed first bath is against standard recommendation, whereas skin to skin care is non-existent and perceived as an odd practice. Interventions to familiarize skin to skin care and reduce misconceptions surrounding it should be introduced into the study area to improve thermal cares of high risk newborns.