Journal of Women's Health Care
Open Access
ISSN: 2167-0420
ISSN: 2167-0420
Emmanuel Chioma Blessing
Clinical Instructor, Nigeria
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Women's Health Care
Background: New born has various needs as frequent feeding, bathing, provision of warmth, umbilical cord care, protection, etc. Adequate care for them depends on the mother�s awareness, attitude and skill. Thus maternal competence is vital. This calls for a new born care teaching program to increase maternal competence on new born care. Objectives: To determine the effect of new born care program on maternal competence and find associations between the maternal competence and selected demographic profiles among antenatal mothers. Participants: 80 pregnant mothers attending antenatal clinic were recruited based on inclusion criteria. Methods: Knowledge to action process was used. The intervention was a new born care program that was administered using audio-visual teaching. The experimental group (N=40) received the new born care program. The comparison group (N=40) did not receive any. Outcomes were measured with the Parenting Sense of Competence scale at baseline and post intervention at 2 days after delivery. Result: Mothers who received new born care program had significant improvement in the maternal competence from low (pretest) to high (post-test) in satisfaction ratings. There was a significant difference (p=0.0397, t=-2.453) in the level of maternal competence between the study and comparison group after the new born care program at satisfaction rating. Relationship was established (P<0.05) between the level of maternal and age (x2=8.95, p=0.014) and parity (x2=6.85, p=0.0325) only but not with education, employment and family support. Conclusion: The new born care program was effective in improving the maternal competence of antenatal mothers. Mother�s age and parity were identified to influence maternal competence while education, employment and family support were not significantly related to maternal competence.
Emmanuel Chioma Blessing is a Clinical Instructor for midwives in active practice. Her research and practice interests are on maintaining normal childbirth and new born care. Her research expertise is in knowledge to action process, narrative inquiry, mixed methods and focused groups.
Email:blessemma12@gmail.com