Nearly half of the mothers had poor practice on the four Essential Newborn Care components of WHO: A community-based study

Abstract

Abstract Background More than 43% of deaths among under five-year children are contributed by neonates. Recommendations about newborn care practices may conflict with local beliefs and practices. So, it is important to understand the existing newborn care practice and the factors affecting it to take interventions to decrease neonatal death. Therefore, this study assessed the essential newborn care (ENBC) practices and associated factors among women who have lived birth in the last year. Methods Community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from April 1 to May 1, 2021, in Libo Kemekem District. A total of 601 women were included in the study. Data was collected using face to face interviewer-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was checked for completeness, cleaned manually, entered into epi data v3.1, and then transferred into SPSS v26.0 for further analysis. Descriptive statistical analysis was used to compute the frequency, percentages, SD, and mean of the findings. Bi-variable and multivariable analyses were used to see the association between dependent and independent variables for ENBC practice. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant in the multivariable regression. Finally, results were presented in the form of texts, tables, and graphs. Multicollinearity and Hosmer and Lemshow goodness of fit test was done for multivariate logistic regression analysis. Result The study revealed that the level of comprehensive essential newborn care practice was 54.2% (95% CI, 50%-58%). In the multivariable binary logistic regression analysis, primary education [ AOR = 0.34, 95% CI (0.23, 0.78)], secondary education [ AOR = 0.51, 95% CI (0.34, 0.89), mass media exposure [ AOR = 2.03, 95% CI (1.35, 3.07)], ANC visits [AOR = 0.403, 95% CI (0.237, 0.686)], knowledge about ENBC [ AOR = 3.93, 95% CI (2.09, 7.37)], and knowledge about newborn danger signs [ AOR = 0.31, 95% CI (0.12, 0.74)] were found to be significantly associated with essential newborn care practices. Conclusion In this study, the overall level of comprehensive essential newborn care practices is low. And different factors were important for it as shown in the result part. Therefore, it's important to increase ANC service utilization, promote ENBC practice and create awareness of neonatal danger signs among all mothers.