BackgroundAround the world, more than three million newborns die in their first months of life every year. In Ethiopia during the last five years period; neonatal mortality is 37 deaths per 1000 live births. Even though there is an improvement compared to the past five years, there is still high home delivery 90 %, and high neonatal mortality about the Millennium Development Goal, which aims to be less than 32/1000 live births in Ethiopia. The purpose of this study is to assess maternal knowledge, practice and associated factors of essential newborn care at home in Gulomekada District Eastern Tigray, Ethiopia.MethodsA community-based cross-sectional study is conducted in 296 mothers from Gulomekada District by using simple random sampling technique. Data entry and analysis is carried out by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences-20. The magnitude of the association between different variables about the outcome variable is measured by odds ratio with 95 % confidence interval. A binary logistic regression analysis is made to obtain odds ratio and the confidence interval of statistical associations. The goodness of fit had tested by Hosmer-Lemeshow statistic and all variables with P-value greater than 0.05 are fitted to the multivariate model. Variables with P < 0.2 in the bivariate analysis are included in the final model, and statistical significance is declared at P < 0.05.ResultEighty percent (80.4 %) study participants had good knowledge on essential new born care and 92.9 % had the good practice of essential new born care. About 60 % of mothers applied butter or oil on the cord stump for their last baby. Marital status and education are significantly associated with knowledge, whereas urban residence mothers with good knowledge on essential newborn care and employed mothers are significantly associated with mothers’ practice of essential newborn care.ConclusionAlmost all mothers know and practice essential newborn care correctly except oil or butter application to the cord stump is highly practiced which should be avoided. Only marital status and educational status are significantly associated with mothers’ knowledge.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12884-016-0931-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

ObjectivesThis study aims to assess the prevalence of oral rehydration therapy use and associated factors among under-five children with diarrhoea in Dangure district, Benishangul Gumuz Region, Ethiopia/2018.ResultA total of 615 under-five children who suffered from diarrhoea 2 weeks before the study were included and the response rate was 610 (99%). Among the total children participated in this study 189 (31%) were between 12 and 23 months with mean 23.5 and SD ± 6.9. Five hundred seventeen (84.8%) of mothers had access to oral rehydration therapy and 85% of mother’s home had taken less than 1 h distance from the health facility. The prevalence of oral rehydration therapy is 51%. Two hundred sixty-seven (43.8%) mothers mentioned correctly about the importance of oral rehydration therapy which is to replace fluid while other 243 (39.8%) mothers stated that oral rehydration therapy uses to decrease diarrhoea. Mother’s educational status, monthly income, knowledge of oral rehydration therapy, previous experience and seeking advice for treatment from health facilities were factors associated with oral rehydration therapy use.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13104-019-4078-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.