Awareness of Post Natal Mothers regarding Neonatal Danger Signs with a view to provide Information Booklet

Early detection of neonatal illness is an important step towards improving newborn survival. Neonates and young infants often present with non-specific symptoms and signs that indicate severe illness. These signs might be present at or after delivery or in a newborn presenting to hospital or develop during hospital stay.3 Objectives of the study were to assess awareness of mothers regarding neonatal danger signs and to develop an information booklet. A descriptive research design was adopted for the study. Data was collected from a total of 147 mothers at district hospital, Udhampur, J&K. Purposive sampling technique was used to collect data. The tool used for data collection was checklist to assess knowledge regarding neonatal danger signs. The data collected was analyzed by using descriptive statistics. Result revealed that majority (56.4%) of the mothers are in the age group of 21-25 years have no formal education (58.5%). Most of the mothers (72.7%) are housewife and (52.3%) had 2 children in the family. Majority of the mothers (96.5%) are from Hindu religion. Most of the mothers (65.3%) had source of information as Family/ Friends. Researcher found that majority of the mothers (61.9%) have poor knowledge and only 38.1 % of mothers have good knowledge regarding neonatal danger signs. The overall mean of the knowledge of mothers regarding neonatal danger signs is 3.65±1.46. At 5% of level of significance, selected demographic variables i.e., mother’s age, education, Occupation, no. of children and source of information were found significantly associated with the knowledge of mothers regarding neonatal danger signs. The researcher concluded that majority of the post natal mothers are not aware of neonatal danger signs and required to get knowledge regarding same. All of the participants were provided with information booklet to make them aware of neonatal danger signs.