INTRODUCTION:

Children are the most precious human resource and their future generation deserves best possible upbringing”. The maintenance of health is the right of the children and it is the duty of the mother to protect them from illness¹. According to American academy of pediatrics,” preterm is defined as the time when the birth of any neonate occurs before the end of the last day of 37 th week of gestation”. The centre for disease control and prevention states that “prematurity is the most important reason of neonatal mortality. Preterm complication is the leading cause of death among children under 5 years of age, responsible for approximately 1 million deaths in 2015.²Most premature babies (<100%) are born between 32 and 37 weeks of gestation and die needlessly for lack of simple essential care such as warmth and feeding care.³ About 10% of preterm babies are born between 28 to <32 weeks of gestation, and in low income countries more than half of those will die but many could be saved with feasible care, not advanced intensive care. In recent studies, the prevalence of preterm births are estimated to be 10% respectively.⁴

NEED AND SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY:

Each year 15 million babies are born and their survival chances vary dramatically around the world. In high income countries around 1.2 million babies were born, which increased complexity of neonatal intensive care over the last quarter of the 20 th century has changed the chances of survival at lower gestational ages.⁵ Worldwide, almost half of the preterm baby born at home and even for those born in facilities where, essential new born care is often lacking.⁶ Prematurity could result in long admission of neonate to neonatal intensive care unit and development of some complications for both mother and new born.⁷ So the identification of post discharge needs of preterm baby should consider at home care basis.The preterm neonates are at higher risk of such disorders as jaundice, temperature imbalance, hypoglycemia, failure to thrive, respiratory problems compared to their full term peers. Therefore implementation of follow up measures including thermoregulation, skin to skin care, meeting the nutritional needs of the baby, environmental hygiene, restriction of visitors, hand hygiene should be followed by mothers in home care setting⁸. For preterm babies missing or delaying of this essential care can rapidly lead to detoriaration and death.⁹ Hence, it is important to enhance the knowledge of mothers regarding home care management of preterm baby. So the study is focused on “assessment of knowledge of mothers regarding the home care management of preterm babies” “when it comes to premies every day counts, it’s not a countdown it’s a count up.”¹⁰

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

“A study to assess the knowledge of mothers regarding home care management of preterm babies” in selected hospital Perinthalmanna.

OBJECTIVES:

· To assess the knowledge of mothers regarding home care management of preterm babies

· To provide pictorial booklet about home care management of preterm babies

· To find out the association between knowledge of mothers on home care management of preterm babies.

ASSUMPTION:

· Mothers have inadequate knowledge regarding home care management of preterm babies.

· Pictorial information booklet will improve the knowledge of mothers on home care management of preterm babies.

HYPOTHESIS:

H₁There is no relationship between knowledge of mother and the home care management of preterm baby.

H₂There is no significant association between pretest knowledge score of mothers and selected demographic variables.

Inclusion Criteria:

· Mothers who gave birth to a preterm baby.

· Mothers who are willing to participate in this study.

Exclusion Criteria:

· Mothers who are not willing to participate in this study

· Mothers who had diagnosed with post partum psychosis and blues.

MATERIALS AND MEHODS:

Research approach	Non experimental descriptive approach.
Research design	Non experimental pretest only design.
Setting of the study	Moulana hospital and MES hospital perinthalmanna, Malappuram dist, Kerala.
Population	Mothers who delivered preterm babies in selected hospitals
Sample	Thirty mothers who delivered preterm babies was the sample.
Sampling technique Variables	Purposive sampling technique.
Independent variable	knowledge of mother
Dependent variable	Home care management of preterm babies
Demographic variables	Age, educational status, number of children, family pattern, area of Residence and income.

Development of Tool:

A structured questionnaire was used as a tool which consists of thirty multiple choice questions for assessing the knowledge of mothers regarding home care management of preterm babies.

The tool consists of two divison:

Appendix I:

The baseline information that include gestational age, religion, family income, age of the mother at the time of conception, educational status, number of children, family pattern, past history of preterm delivery, area of residence.

Appendix II: It includes questions for assessing the knowledge of mothers regarding home care management of preterm babies on;

· Thermoregulation

· Nutritional needs of the preterm babies

· Skin infection

· Infection control.

Data Collection Procedure:

Thirty samples needed for the study was selected from Moulana hospital and MES hospital perinthalmanna. The investigator approached the proper authorities for obtaining the necessary permission and co-operation. The nature of the study was briefly explained and it was ensured by the investigator that the normal routine of hospital won’t be disturbed.

Data Analsis:

The collected data were analysed by using frequency, percentage and chi- square analysis and presented them in form of tables, figures and graphs.

RESULT:

Demographic Characteristics:

Demographic data collected were analysed to find out its influence with knowledge of mothers regarding preterm care. In the present study the maximum number of participants were in the age group, and then 20- (30%), and then 20-25 years of age IS (60%) and (10%) for 25-30 years. In educational status majority of the mothers (47%) were educated up to higher secondary school and only 23% of were graduates.

Based on number of children majority of the mother (50%) had 2 children and only (23 %) had about 3 children. Family pattern, among 30 mothers (47%) of them belongs to nuclear family and (57%) of them belongs to joint family. Based on residence majority of the mothers (83%) live in rural area and (17%) live in urban area. Based on daily income majority of them were earning around 500-1000 rupees per day.

Table I. Relationship between demographic variables and knowledge of mothers regarding home care management of preterm babies.

Demographic variables	Good	Average	Poor	Frequency	Percentage	Table value	X²	Remarks
Age group
15-20 yrs	1	8	0	9	30%
20-25 yrs	3	12	3	18	60%
25-30 yrs	2	1	0	3	10%	9.488	6.71	s (0.05)
Education
Secondary	3	7	0	10	33.3%
Higher secondary	2	10	2	14	46.6%
Degree	1	4	7	6	20%	12.59	11.17	s (0.05)
Number of children
1	1	5	1	7	23.3%
2	4	10	2	16	53.3%
>3	1	6	0	7	23.3%	9.488	3.77	s (0.05)
Family pattern
Nuclear	5	8	2	15	50%
joint	1	13	1	15	50%	9.488	4.182	s (0.05)
Residence
Urban	1	2	2	5	16.6%
Rural	5	19	1	25	83.3%	5.99	6.17	Ns (0.05)
Income
500-1000	3	10	1	14	46.6%
1000-1500	3	9	2	14	46.6%
1500-2000	0	2	0	2	6.6%	9.488	5.402	s (0.05)

Fig.No. 1

Testing Hypothesis:

Table I shown, by X²analysis it was found that, there is a significant relationship between the age, educational status, number of children, family pattern, and income except residence and knowledge of mothers and home care management of preterm baby Knowledge score of mothers.

The result revealed that 57.58% of them had average knowledge, 45.62% of them had poor knowledge and none of them had good and very good knowledge regarding home care management of preterm babies. In category wise analysis (fig .1) shows that only 42.77% of them had poor knowledge in thermoregulation and 48.48% of the mother had poor knowledge in nutritional needs. 53.33 of the mothers had average knowledge in skin care, 56% 0f them had average knowledge in infection control and 63.35 of them had average knowledge in general care.

CONCLUSION:

Present study attempted to assess the knowledge of mothers regarding home care management of preterm babies. The sample size was 30. The study result revealed that there is a significant association between level of knowledge and demographic variables except residence. Most of the mothers had average and poor knowledge and none of them had good and very good knowledge. The study result revealed that there is a high demand for educating the mothers regarding home care management of preterm babies.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

The investigators would like to express their deepest sense of gratitude to principal and Administrator Moulana college of nursing and also like to thank Moulana hospital and MES hospital perinthalmanna and the mothers of preterm babies those who participated in the study.

REFERENCES:

1. K.C Chavdhuri (1993) “Indian journals of pediatrics”, volume 86, published by International editorial advisory board, 451, 452.

2. K Verma, Indian journal of pediatrics, volume 86, published by national editorial advisory board, 519-524, 942-947.

3. Vikhe Patil, Indian journal of trauma and emergency, volume-10, published by Red flower publications pvt. Ltd, 75-79.

4. Shehala Jamal, Ruchi Srivastava, international journal of reproduction, contraception, obstructive and gynecology journals 2017; 63-66.

5. Amita Mahaja, Shally Magom, international journal of medical and pediatric science, 6 th volume January 2017, page no. 42-45.

6. Chytrara R Rao, Lara E E, de Ruiter, Parvati Bhat, journal for obstructive and gynecology volume 4 2014; 82-86.

7. Shahirose S Premji, Genevieve Wrrie, Sandra Relliy, Aliyah Dosahi journal foressential care for pediatrics and new born 2017; 101-104.

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NET Reference:

1. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/0104-07072014003280013

2. http://www.reproductive-health-journal.com/content/10/S1/S5

3. http://ijn.mums.ac.ir

4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles

5. http://www.medline.pub//reveals

6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles

Received on 09.01.2020 Modified on 08.06.2020

Int. J. Nur. Edu. and Research. 2021; 9(2):175-178.

DOI: 10.5958/2454-2660.2021.00042.9