Knowledge and practices of postpartum women regarding neonatal care in El-behira governorate "revised"

Background: Neonatal morbidity and death are significantly influenced by the postpartum care practices of mothers. WHO recommends essential neonatal care practice, a comprehensive strategic approach intended to improve the health of mothers and newborns by implementing recommended interventions, in order to reduce neonatal mortality and morbidity. Aim of study is to assess the knowledge and practices of postpartum women regarding neonatal care. Design: A cross sectional descriptive design was used. Setting: The study was conducted on 4 out of 16 directorates in El-Beheira governorate, namely; Itay Elbaroud, Kom Hamada, El Rahmania and Shubrakhit. Eight primary health care centers selected randomly, one from urban and one from rural area to constitute the setting of study. Convenient sample of 352 postnatal mothers were selected. Tool for data collection: A structured interview questionnaire, which included three parts; (I) demographic characteristics; (II) mothers’ knowledge and (III) the reported practice regarding essential neonatal care. Results: the study revealed that (67.9%) of the studied mothers had fair knowledge level regarding essential neonatal care and (51.1%) of the studied mothers had fair practice regarding essential neonatal care. There is positive significant correlation between total knowledge score and total practices level (R= 0.794 at p. value < 0.000). Conclusion: More than two thirds of the studied mothers had fair knowledge about essential neonatal care where more than half of them had fair practice; there are many factors that affect neonatal care negatively or positively.