Mothers’ and Caregivers’ Knowledge and Experience of Neonatal Danger Signs: A Cross-Sectional Survey in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Introduction. The majority of neonatal deaths in developing countries occur at home. Many of these deaths are related to late recognition of the signs of a serious illness by parents and a delay in the decision to seek medical care. Since the health-seeking behavior of mothers for neonatal care depends on the mothers' knowledge about WHO recognized danger signs, it is essential to investigate their knowledge of these signs. Objective. To investigate the knowledge and the experience of mothers and caregivers towards the WHO suggested neonatal danger signs. Methods. A community-based study was conducted on mothers who had delivered or had nursed a baby in the past two years. Results. A total of 1428 women were included in the analysis. Only 37% of the participant's knowledge covered three or more danger signs. The frequently reported participants’ knowledge of danger signs in this study was for yellow soles (48.0%), not feeding since birth or stopping to feed (46.0%), and signs of local infection (37.0%). The majority (69.0%) of the participants had experienced at least one of the danger signs with their baby. The noteworthy frequent reports of the participants’ experiences were for yellow soles (27.0%), not feeding since birth or stopping to feed (25.0%), and umbilical complications (19.0%). Conclusion. The proportion of mothers with knowledge of at least three neonatal danger signs is low. There is a need for developing interventions to increase a mother’s knowledge of newborns danger signs.