Community-based new born care practice and its associated factors among women who give birth at home in Ethiopia: cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background

In Ethiopia, perinatal mortality rate was 33 per 1000 pregnancies and 64.4% of this death was occurred within the first 7 days of neonatal life. Moreover, more than 2.1% of new born babies were died within their first seven days of life in Ethiopia. Majority of neonatal deaths are preventable by applying an effective and lifesaving interventions. However, little is known about newborn care practice at the community level.

Methods

A community-based cross-sectional study design was used. Multi-stage sampling techniques were used to get a total of 540 mothers who gave birth at home within the past six months from their kebeles in Ethiopia. Data was collected by using face-to-face interview with structured questionnaires. Then the data was coded, cleaned, and entered into Epidemiological data version 3.1 and exported to statistical package for social science version 23.0 for analyses. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression model was used to identify statistically significant associations between dependent and independent variables. The odds ratio at 95% confidence interval with P-Value 0.05% was computed.

Results

A total of 540 women were participated with a response rate of 98.3%. Only 208 (44%) of the women had good practice towards essential newborn care. Head of households [AOR (95%CI) 2.7417 (1.80–4.25)], type of birth attendant [AOR (95%CI) 3.962 (3.329–7.171)] and bad obstetrical history [AOR (95%CI) 3.151 (2.209–4.969)] were significantly associated with maternal newborn care practice.

Conclusion

Less than half of the mothers had good newborn care practice. In this study, head of household, type of birth attendant, and bad obstetrical history were significantly associated with maternal newborn care practice. Therefore, Ministry of Women and Woreda women and Child offices needs to promote the socioeconomic empowerment of women to increase the practice of essential newborn care practices.

Keywords:

• New born
• home birth
• essential newborn care practice
• postnatal care
• Ethiopia

Transparency

Declaration of funding

This study was not funded by any grant. There have been no reimbursements, fees, funding, nor salary from any organization that depends on or influence the results and publication of this study.

Declaration of financial relationships

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Author contributions

(WM) conceptualized, designed the study, collect, analyzed and interpretation of the data and drafting of the manuscript. (MD), (RT), (YG), (MDM), (JT), (DS), (HE), (WA), (TM), (AEC), (SS), (NM), (SY), (ZF), (DGA), (EDZ), (AW) and (MT) Designed the study, analyzed and interpretation of the data and drafting of the manuscript, and advised the whole research paper.

Acknowledgements

We are thankful to the study participants for giving their fruitful time to participate in this study and for their unlimited support throughout the data collection.

Data availability statement

All data included in this manuscript can be accessed from the corresponding author upon request through the email address.

Ethics statement

Ethical approval and clearance were obtained from Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Dilla University, college of Medicine and Health science with ethical number of 0046/20. Official letters were submitted to all respective health departments. Permission was also obtained from the concerned bodies. Prior to data collection, written informed consent was obtained from all participants after a brief explanation about the purpose and objectives of the study and for participants who were unable to read and write, informed consent was obtained from their legal guardian or legally authorized representative. participants’ involvement in the study was totally voluntary basis, and those who were unwilling to participate in the study & those who wished to quit their participation at any stage were informed to do so without any restriction. Confidentiality was maintained at all levels of the study by namelessly avoiding the name of the participants in the questionnaire. The collected data were kept under lock and key for security and used only for the purpose of the study.