INTRODUCTION:

Many communities keep mothers and babies indoor for the first month after birth. If the mother or baby become ill during the period of seclusion, seeking health care is often delayed, yet sick babies often die within a few hours or delays can be fatal. Poor knowledge on part of mothers can lead to disastrous results in the field of care giving. Mother has to regulate the child’s behavior, attitudes, outlook and home environment in family, since these are the basic factors that influence the growth of newborn. If the mothers are not acquainted with a recognition and referral of newborn danger signs, it might affect the rearing of their children. Providing timely education in the form of intervention to mothers could fill these gaps in knowledge.²

REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

A cross sectional study was under taken in three of the 27 primary health centres of Wardha district with a population of 88187 to know mothers' knowledge and explore their perceptions about newborn danger signs and health care seeking behavior. Out of 1675 expected mothers, 1160 mothers in the area were interviewed by house-to-house visits. Data was entered and analyzed in statistical package for the social sciences is 12.0.1 the finding revealed that 67.2% mothers knew at least one newborn danger sign. Majority of mothers (87.4%) responded that the sick child should be immediately taken to the doctor but only 41.8% of such sick newborns got treatment either from government hospital (21.8%) or from private hospital (20%) and 46.1% of sick babies received no treatment. The result shows reasons for not taking actions even in presence of danger signs/symptoms were ignorance of parents, lack of money, faith in supernatural causes, non-availability of transport, home remedy, non-availability of doctor and absence of responsible person at home. The study concluded that the present study found gap between mothers' knowledge and their health seeking behavior for sick newborn and explored their deep perceptions, constraints and various traditional.⁵

Treatments. Further it revealed that comprehensive intervention strategies are required to change behaviour of caregivers along with improvement in capacity of Government health care services and National Health Programs to ensure newborn survival in rural area.³

A study was undertaken to assess the pattern of reported neonatal morbidity and the care-seeking behaviour for neonates in rural Bangladesh. The samples were 1151 mothers and data was collected using structured knowledge questionnaire. The study revealed that 49% of their neonates were reported to have suffered from the some kind of morbidity. Fever was the most common morbidity reported in the study population (21%), followed by breathing difficulty (11%). Birth order, complications during pregnancy and delivery, and death of sibling were found to be significantly associated with reported neonatal morbidity. 87% of the mothers sought care for their newborns. Some were taken to several different providers, the commonest being homeopaths (38%) and village doctors (37%). Seventeen percent were taken to trained providers, and only 5% to government health facilities. The study concluded that these types of studies will help in educating the women regarding newborn fatal problems.⁴

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

An evaluative research approach was used for the present study. For the present study a quasi- experimental design adopted. The investigator selected General Hospital, Jayanagar, Bangalore as the setting for the present study. Because of feasibility the investigator has selected this area to conduct research study. Population of present study comprises of all post-natal mothers in Jayanagar General Hospital, Bangalore. The samples for this research study are post-natal mothers in General Hospital, Jayanagar, Bangalore. The sample size taken for this study is 50 post-natal mothers. In this study non- probability purposive sampling technique is used for selecting the samples.

RESULTS:

· With respect to the age, majority of the postnatal mothers 72% belong to the age group of 20-25 years, 18 % belongs to the age group of 26-30 years and 6% were in the age group of 31-35yrs and 4% belongs to 36-40yrs of age.

· With respect to educational status, majority of postnatal mothers 78% have higher secondary education 14% have graduation and 6%have non- formal education and 2% of the mothers are post graduates.

· With respect occupation, majority of mothers 70% are housewife, 6% are government employers and 24% have private occupation.

· With respect to work economic status, majority of postnatal mothers 66% has 15001-20000 of income and 34% has >20000 of income.

· With respect to the religion, majority of mothers 82% are Muslim 16% are Hindu and 2% are Christian.

· With respect to type of family, 80%, belongs to nuclear family, 20%belongs to joint family.

· With respect to place of residence majority of postnatal mothers 84% belongs to urban area and 16% belongs to rural area.

· With respect to number of children majority of postnatal mothers 76% have one child 18% have 2 children and 6% have more than two children.

· With respect to the previous exposure to the education on danger signs none of the mothers have previous exposure on education on danger signs.

Section II: Finding of respondents on pre-test knowledge level on newborn danger signs:

The first objective is to assess the pre-test knowledge and post test score of postnatal mothers regarding newborn danger signs. The present study found that, the pre-test knowledge level among 50 respondents, 15(30%) had moderate knowledge score, 35(70%) had inadequate knowledge score and no subject had adequate knowledge. The overall mean value was 9.76 with standard deviation 1.13.

Section III: Finding of respondents on post-test test knowledge level on newborn danger signs:

The present study found that, the post-test knowledge scores among 50 respondents revealed that majority 40(80%) had adequate knowledge score, 10(20%) had moderate knowledge and no subject had inadequate knowledge. In the post- test the overall mean value was 36.86 with standard deviation 3.89.

Section IV: Finding related to area wise effectiveness of structured teaching programme in terms of comparison of pre- test and post- test knowledge scores regarding newborn danger signs:

In the present study, the overall post- test mean score was 36.86 (89.32%) with standard deviation 3.89. and the respondents post-test knowledge score were significantly higher than the mean pre-test knowledge scores 9.76 (25.87%) with standard deviation 1.13. And computed area wise paired t‘ value for the first area was 13.50, t- value for the second area was 30.29, t- value for the third area was 24.46 , t-value for the fourth area was 47.4,t- value for the fifth area was 17.38, t- value for the sixth area was 22.58 and t- value for the seventh area was 9.91. All the above t-values is greater than the table value of 2.56 which indicates the area wise effectiveness of the structured teaching programme on knowledge regarding cord newborn danger signs. The overall t‘ value was 23.78 which is higher than table value 2.56, which shows the structured teaching programme was effective at P<0.001 level. The study result revealed that the structured teaching programme was effective in terms of gain in knowledge of postnatal mothers regarding newborn danger signs.

Section V: Data describing the association between pre- test knowledge scores of respondents regarding newborn danger signs with selected demographic variables of the respondents:

Chi-square was computed to find the association between selected demographic variables with pre- test knowledge scores of postnatal mothers on newborn danger signs, which shows there is no significant association between selected demographic variables like age with computed χ²=0.066 at 1 df , education with computed χ²=0.4 at 1 df, occupation with computed χ²=0.661 at 1 df, economic status with computed χ²=0.4 at 1 df, religion with computed χ²=0.32 at 1 df, type of family with computed χ²=0.28 at 1 df, place of residence with computed χ²=2.77and number of children with computed χ²=0.3 with pre- test knowledge scores at P >0.05 level of significance. The present study also reveals that there is no association between selected demographic variables like age, education, occupation, religion, place of residence, number of children, previous knowledge and source of knowledge in relation with pre-test knowledge scores of postnatal mothers at P>0.05.

DISCUSSION:

A qualitative research study was conducted to assess the knowledge and understanding of danger signs. An in depth interview was used among 20 mother. The majority (78.2%) had no idea about danger signs. Only 20 mothers knew one danger sign. The results of this study revealed inadequate knowledge on danger sign. So the Government and health care providers should combine efforts to provide accurate information on newborn danger signs.⁶

Similarly, an evaluative study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of planned teaching programme on knowledge regarding risk factors and care of newborn in safdarjung hospital Delhi. One group pre- test post- test design with pre experimental approach was adopted. The data was collected from 60 respondents before and after administration of planned teaching programme. The post- test knowledge score were significantly higher than the pre-test scores. Hence, the planned teaching programme was effective in improving the knowledge of mothers regarding risk factors and care of new born babies.⁷

A similar study was conducted in Udupi to evaluate the effectiveness of information book let on newborn danger signs among mothers. 60 mothers were involved in the study. The study results showed that post-test score was higher than pre- test score. It was concluded that the information booklet was found to be effective among mothers regarding newborn danger signs^.8

RECOMMENDATIONS:

1 In the light of the above findings and personal experience of the investigator the following recommendations are offered:

2 The study can be replicated on a larger sample; thereby findings can be generalized for a larger population.

3 A similar study can be conducted to assess the knowledge level of antenatal mothers regarding new born danger signs.

4 A self-instructional module can be prepared to enhance knowledge of rural mothers on newborn danger signs.

5 A similar study can be conducted to compare the knowledge level between urban and rural post-natal mothers.

6 Pamphlets or information booklets can be prepared with guidance of this structured teaching programme and distributed among the staff nurses in post-natal ward to get awareness about newborn danger signs

CONCLUSION:

The structured teaching programme on new born dander signs among postnatal mothers was found to be effectiveness. The findings of the study can be used in the areas of nursing practice, nursing education nursing administration, and nursing research

REFERENCES:

1. Srikanth. R. Signs of possible illness. [Serial online] 2011; Feb 4 [cited Nov 2 2011]. Available from URL: http:// health.wikinut.com/ signs of possible illness.

2. Charlotte Warren, Pat Dally, Lalla Toure, Pyanade Mongi. Postnatal care. [Online] [citednov23] pp. 80. Available from URL:http://www.who.cnt/pmch/media/publications/aonsectionIII-4pdf.

3. A.R. Dongre, P.R. Deshmukh, B.S. Garg. Perception and health seeking about newborn danger signs among mothers in rural wardha. Indian journal of paediatrics [online]2008; [cited nov12 2011] vol:75, issue:4, pp325-329. Available from URL: http://www.ncbi.nim.nih.gov:18536884.

4. Amy.J. Kesterton & John Cleland. Neonatal care health and harmful practices, the potential for change. [Online] 2009; may 20[cited Nov 13 2011]. Available from URL: http// www.biomedcentral.com/147/-2393/9/20.

5. A.R. Dongre, P.R. Deshmukh, B.S. Garg. perception and health seeking about newborn danger signs among mothers in rural wardha. Indian journal of paediatrics[online] 2008; [ cited nov12 2011] vol:75,issue:4, pp325-329. Available from URL: http://www.ncbi.nim.nih.gov:18536884.

6. Causes of child death. [online] 2010; [cited nov18 2011]. Available from URL: http://www.global health.org>key issues>child health>child mortality.

7. Amy.J. Kesterton & John Cleland. Neonatal care health and harmful practices, the potential for change. [Online] 2009; may 20[cited Nov 13 2011]. Available from URL: http// www.biomedcentral.com/147/-2393/9/20.

8. Newborn [Online] [Cited Nov 10 2011]. Available from URL: http://en.Wikipedia.org/ wiki/ New born.

Received on 15.11.2019 Modified on 10.12.2019

Int. J. of Advances in Nur. Management. 2020; 8(1):63-66.

DOI: 10.5958/2454-2652.2020.00015.3