Knowledge and practice regarding newborn care among female community health volunteers

28-33

Abstract

A study entitled Knowledge and Practice Regarding Newborn Care was carried out to assess  the knowledge and practice of newborn care among FCHVs of Lalitpur District from 2066/03/28 to  2066/05/14. A descriptive study design, in which multistage random sampling method was used to  select 123 FCHVs. Data collection, was done by interview method using structured questionnaire and  was entered in SPSS version 11.5 and analysed using descriptive statistics frequency and percentage. 

The findings of the study revealed that 98.4(%) knew about early initiation of breast feeding and  almost all 100(%) knew about clostrum feeding. Similarly 98.4(%) mentioned about cutting cord with  sterile blade and 43.9(%) mentioned about putting nothing on the cord stump whereas 95.1(%) knew  about eye care and only 11.4(%) of the respondents knew about delaying bath for at least 24 hours,  74(%) mentioned that the newborn baby must be wrapped immediately after birth and around two  third 83.7(%) mentioned that newborn should be bathed within 24 hours of delivery, almost 50(%)  of the respondent stated that oil can be applied over the cord. Similarly practices regarding newborn  care shows that 81.3(%) wiped the newborn baby immediately after birth, 59.3(%) of the respondent  wrapped the baby immediately after birth, 80.5(%) of the respondents gave bath immediately after  birth followed by only 13.8(%) after 24 hours of birth. Practice on cord care shows that 93.5(%)  used boiled blade to cut cord, 95.2(%) advised to feed breast milk within first hour of birth and  65.9(%) practiced the correct way of cleaning eyes of the newborn. Thus it can be Concluded that  breast feeding, colosturm feeding and cord cutting were well known to FCHVs where as putting  nothing on cord stump, delaying bath and early initiation of breast feeding were less known to them.