Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Mothers about Perinatal Care

Abstract

Background: Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), the most sensitive indicator of health is reflected by female literacy, health education and nutrition of mother and infant. The present study is aimed to assess the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of mothers regarding perinatal care, nutrition in pregnancy, place and method of delivery, breast feeding, prelacteal feeds, care of newborn, vaccination and red flag signs in newborn. Methods: The study was conducted to determine the Knowledge, Attitude, Practices amongst mothers (250 families), regarding perinatal care and to study the effect of health education. A pretested questionnaire was adopted after a short pilot study. Proportions were calculated for all observations and Z-test was applied for comparison between observations. Results: The majority of the respondents had correct knowledge regarding antenatal care, hospital delivery (88%), selection of clean place for delivery, delivery to be conducted by doctors, nurses or trained birth attendants (97.2%), cord cutting (83.6%), cord care(52.4%), rooming in (88%), hypothermia prevention (72.4%) and physiological jaundice of newborn (81.2%). Most had incorrect knowledge regarding type of diet and time of initiation of nutritious diet after delivery, infant feeding in relation to initiation of first feed (58%), colostrum being beneficial and giving prelacteal feeds (52.4%), kajal application (68.4%) and oil instillation in ears (72%). Conclusions: Successful maternal and child health depends largely on perinatal care viz. pregnancy, antenatal care, nutrition, spacing between pregnancies, basic hygiene, domiciliary delivery, care of the newborn and prevention from infection. Thus, health education regarding perinatal care is important for both mother and child.

Knowledge, attitude and practice of mothers and prospective mothers in neonatal care and utilization of perinatal care services

“…Hajela et al in his study showed that about 81.2% of the mothers had a knowledge about practicing hand washing before touching the baby. 10 In the present study, when compared to other studies very less proportion of mothers are applying some substance on the umbilical cord of the neonate which is reflective of better practice in these mothers (3.8%). 12,13 The knowledge and practice of mothers in the study regarding neonatal immunization is still having considerable deficiency by about 25% compared to WHO suggested norms.…”

“…There are considerable deficiencies in practice in the number of ANC's in the present study and in other studies. [7][8][9] Very small proportion of mothers are giving first feed to their babies within one hour after birth in the present study as well as other studies by Hajela and Gul et al except the study done by Misgna et al [10][11][12] This is a very important deficiency in feeding the baby which needs to be corrected by proper health education. There is a deficiency in the study in practicing the breast feeding of the baby on demand.…”