Traditional practices for maternal and newborn care among Turkish postpartum women

Researchers used descriptive study design to examine the traditional practices of women in relation to maternal and newborn care in the postpartum period.

523 postpartum women included who were between 15 and 49years of age, had at least one child, and had no medical complications that affect the mother-infant health. A questionnaire was used to collect data. Comparisons were made between the responses about the women's knowledge of traditional practices and other variables.

We found that women widely used traditional practices such as putting Koran (Holy book for Muslims) and packing needle under the mother's pillow to prevent mother from "al basması", pouring lead in a cup over the head of the newborn to repel evil spirits, and covering the baby's face with a piece of yellow cloth to prevent neonatal jaundice. The rate of using postpartum traditional practices increased with age and number of pregnancies and decreased with education (p<0.05).

Educational activities are recommended to increase awareness of harmful traditional practices in the field of reproductive health for nurses and midwives. Health professionals should pay special attention to less educated, older and primiparous women from rural areas enable them to reinforce positive cultural practices, and discourage them from using harmful ones by providing non-critical scientific explanations.