Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 20, 2026
Attitudes: Explicit and Implicit Attitudes
Knowledge, attitude, and practice among mothers about newborn care in Sindh, Pakistan
Javed Memon1, Kourosh Holakouie-Naieni2, Reza Majdzadeh2
1School of Public Health, International Campus, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. javedmemon1@gmail.com.
Insights
Neonatal deaths are high in developing countries, with many preventable deaths linked to poor newborn care practices. This study highlights prevalent harmful practices, emphasizing the need for improved maternal and newborn health programs.
Area of Science:
- Global Health
- Maternal and Child Health
- Pediatrics
Background:
- Neonatal mortality remains a significant global health challenge, disproportionately affecting developing countries.
- Nearly 3.1 million newborns die during the neonatal period annually, with 45% of under-five deaths attributed to neonatal causes.
- A substantial number of neonatal deaths occur within the first week of life, underscoring the critical importance of immediate postnatal care.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of mothers concerning newborn care.
- To identify factors associated with newborn care practices in mothers in Badin district, Pakistan.
Main Methods:
- A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted involving 518 mothers.
- Data were collected through face-to-face interviews using a pretested, structured questionnaire.
- Multi-stage cluster sampling was employed, and statistical analyses included t-tests, ANOVA, and GLM.
Main Results:
- Over half of newborns were bathed within six hours, and approximately 50% initiated breastfeeding after one hour.
- A significant proportion of mothers (45%) practiced pre-lacteal feeding, and 44.8% did not provide colostrum.
- Mothers with no formal education demonstrated significantly lower KAP scores regarding newborn care compared to educated mothers (p < 0.05).
Conclusions:
- Harmful newborn care practices, including delayed breastfeeding, discarding colostrum, and pre-lacteal feeding, are highly prevalent.
- Immediate bathing and the application of traditional substances on the umbilical cord were identified as high-risk factors.
- Urgent interventions by Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) programs are needed to promote healthy practices, especially in rural settings.
Background:
Each year nearly 7.7 million children under five years die around the world; out of which approximately 3.1 million of the newborns die during the neonatal period and almost all these (99%) deaths occur in the developing countries. According to the World Health Organization's estimation neonatal deaths account for 45% of the under-five deaths. More than one-third of these deaths occur in the first 24 h of birth, whereas three-quarter of the neonatal deaths takes place in the first seven days of birth. The purpose of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) among mothers about newborns' care and its related factors in district Badin Sindh province of Pakistan.
Methods:
A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from July 2017 to August 2017 to assess the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) in mothers regarding newborn care. A structured questionnaire was administered, after pretest, for data gathering through face to face interview. All survey participants were identified using multi-stage cluster sampling. A scoring system was used to calculate the level of KAP among participants. Independent sample t-test, ANOVA, and GLM were applied to identify the statistical difference between the means of various groups.
Result:
A total of 518 survey participants were interviewed. Among the study sample, more than half of the newborns were bathed within six hours of delivery. Around 50% started breastfeeding after 1 h of birth. A substantial proportion (45%) of mothers gave pre-lacteal feeding and 44.8% of them did not feed colostrum to their newborns. Among those who administered pre-lacteal to their newborn babies included animal/formula milk (15.4%), honey (24.5%) and fresh butter/ghee (5.2. %). Mothers with no education had less significant KAP score about newborn care as compared to those who had higher education (p < 0.05).
Conclusion:
This study revealed that high-risk factors such as immediate bathing, application of traditional substances on the cord, delayed initiation of breastfeeding, discarding colostrum and giving pre-lacteal feed to newborns were highly prevalent. This requires urgent attention of Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) programs and health care delivery system to prevent harmful care practices and adopt healthy practices especially in the rural settings.
Related Concept Videos
01:54Attitudes
09:26Persuasion: Motivational Factors Influencing Attitude Change
Decades of social psychological research sought to understand a fundamental question that pervades our social life including politics, marketing and public health; namely, how are people persuaded to change their attitudes towards an idea, person, or object? Traditional work found that there are key factors that influence whether persuasion is successful or not including the source of the persuasive message ("source"),...
07:39How to Obtain Reliable Visual Event-related Potentials in Newborns
12:08From Voxels to Knowledge: A Practical Guide to the Segmentation of Complex Electron Microscopy 3D-Data
05:04A Common Marmoset Model of Mother-Infant Intervention for Breastfeeding Disorders in the Presence of Paternal Inhibition and Maternal Neglect
05:47Evidence-based Knowledge Synthesis and Hypothesis Validation: Navigating Biomedical Knowledge Bases via Explainable AI and Agentic Systems