Knowledge of Neonatal Danger Signs and its Determinant Factors among Mothers Attending Postnatal Care in Nekemte, Ethiopia, 2019: Cross Sectional Descriptive Study

Background: Globally, 75% of neonatal death occurs within the first seven days of delivery. Neonatal mortality accounts for 40% of total child mortality. Low and middleincome countries contribute 99% of neonatal deaths. Globally, Ethiopia is one of top ten countries with the highest number of neonatal deaths. To alleviate this, Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health launched Reproductive Maternal Neonatal and Child Health (RMNCH) services to be provided by Health Extension Workers (HEWs). Despite to this, health centers and health posts (HPs) Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA) report showed health care facilities do not have adequate necessary materials and capacities to provide quality RMNCH services. Therefore, it was the aim of this study to examine the knowledge of neonatal danger signs and its determinant factors among mother’s attending postnatal care in public health care facilities in Ethiopia.

Methods: Institutional based cross sectional survey was conducted to evaluate mother’s knowledge of neonatal danger signs and its determinant factors among mothers’ attending postnatal care in Ethiopia. A total of 250 women who attended Post-Natal Care (PNC) follow up in four public health care institutions were recruited by simple random sampling. Data was collected by using pre-tested interviewer administered questionnaire and analyzed using logistic regression.

Results: The study has examined knowledge of neonatal danger signs and its determinant factors among mother’s attending postnatal care in public health care facilities, Ethiopia. Overall, 73.71% mothers had poor knowledge of neonatal danger signs. Multivariate analysis shows being younger women, government employed, high monthly income, regular Antenatal Care (ANC) follow up, and receiving neonatal danger signs counseling and being urban residence were major contributing factors to had good knowledge of neonatal danger signs. However, never had been to school, place of delivery were factors contributing in poor knowledge of neonatal danger signs.

Conclusions: Knowledge of neonatal danger signs is poor among participants, where 73.71% of mothers had poor knowledge about danger signs. Therefore, educating mothers during ANC and PNC period, health messages of neonatal danger signs and establishment of pregnant mothers’ group discussion and capacity buildings should be considered.

Author(s): Ayana Chimdessa, Italem Tamiru, Feyyissa Lemmessa

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