A Study to Assess the Awareness of Mothers on the Care of Premature Infants after Discharge from Newborn Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

Prematurity is one of the major causes of death among infants. In the hospital setting preterm babies are in skilled hands of nurses and pediatricians. After discharge mother needs to have adequate knowledge related to the care of the baby at home to prevent preterm mortality, hence the present study was undertaken to assess the awareness of mothers on the care of premature infants at home after discharge from NICU with a view to develop and disseminate an information booklet on premature infant care to the mothers at the selected hospital of Delhi. Awareness scores were correlated with selected demographic variables. The quantitative descriptive research approach was adopted for the study with non-experimental research design. The non-probability, purposive sampling technique was used and sample comprised of 50 mothers. An interview was conducted to collect the data through structured interview schedule. Out of 50 mothers, 47 (94%) had average, 2 (4%) had poor and 1 (2%) had good awareness. No significance was found between the awareness scores of the mother with the age, religion, educational qualification, family type, number of children type of delivery and registration during antenatal period. Association was found between awareness of mothers and their occupation, area of residence, and total family monthly income. It was found that the mothers were least aware of the prevention of hypothermia and basic concepts about the prematurity. Awareness about nutrition and prevention of infections was found to be average though mothers were well aware about immunization of preterm children. How to cite this article:Negi H, Rani S, Sarkar S. A Study to Assess the Awareness of Mothers on the Care of Premature Infants after Discharge from Newborn Intensive Care Unit. Int J Nurs Midwif Res 2019; 6(2&3): 27-32.