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Title: Umbilical cord care practices and factors associated with appropriate use of recommended care among recently delivered mothers in Ibadan North Local Government Area, Nigeria
ABSTRACT
Umbilical cord stump is an important portal of entry for bacterial infection in the newborn. Though several reports have associated risk of infection with quality of newborn care, few studies have explored cord care practices among mothers in Nigeria. Therefore this study was conducted describing the various umbilical cord care practices and factors associated with appropriate use of recommended cord care by recently delivered mothers.
This study was cross sectional in design involving three-stage sampling technique to select six out of 25 immunization centres and 830 recently delivered mothers whose infants were aged 6-9weeks. A semi structured questionnaire was used to collect information. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistic and logistic regression.
Mean age of mothers was 29.3±5.0 and 90.7% were Yoruba. About half (53.3%) had tertiary education, (40.1%) had secondary, (6.0%) had primary and 0.6% had no education. Facilities of delivery included: government hospital (43.0%), private hospital (34.1%), mission houses (15.7%) and Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA)/personal homes (7.2%). Majority (99.6%) of the respondents used methylated-spirit for cord care before separation. Main reasons for the chosen methods include recommended by health-workers (45.7%), desire to prevent infection (18.6%), and desire to aid cord separation (18.3%). Mothers who delivered in government facilities compared with TBA/personal homes (OR=2.33, 95% CI=1.18, 4.61) and those who had tertiary compared with primary/none education (OR=2.74, 95% CI=1.37, 5.47) were more likely to appropriately use of recommended methods.
A high proportion of mothers appropriately used the recommended cord care before separation but there is need to re-emphasize continuity and adherence to proven and safe cord care practices especially among those who deliver outside government facilities and less than tertiary education.
Learning Objectives: To determine the factors influencing the choice of types of neonatal cord care practice. 2. To describe the cord care practices among recently delivered mothers seen at health care centres 3. To describe the perceived benefits or harms associated with the local cord care practices. 4. To determine the level of awareness and attitudes of mothers towards established WHO recommendation for cord care practice.