Early Newborn Bath Practice and Its Associated Factors in Jimma, South West Ethiopia, 2021

The timing of the first bath is an important variable in newborn care despite variations from setting to setting. Early first bath can affect the newborn's temperature, blood sugar levels, bonding with his/her mother, comfort, and security. Thus, timing affects several aspects of newborn care and is still a major concern. However, in Ethiopia, there is insufficient evidence regarding newborn bath timing. Therefore, this study aimed to assess early newborn bath practice and its associated factors in Jimma, Southwest Ethiopia, 2021.

An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted from July to August 2021 on 388 postpartum women who came for newborn immunization. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire. Data were entered into Epi-data 4.4.2.1 and exported to Stata version 14 for cleaning and analysis. Logistic regression was used to determine the association between explanatory and response variables. The level of significance was declared at a p-value of less than 0.05 in multivariable logistic regression.

This study revealed 126 (32.5%) of mothers were practicing early newborn bathing. Vaginal mode of delivery (AOR: 3.84 (95% CI: 1.96-7.52)), poor knowledge about danger signs (AOR: 6.78 (95% CI: 3.77-12.19), poor knowledge about hypothermia (AOR: 0.35 (95% CI: 0.20-0.58) and educational level of women (AOR: 0.33 (95% CI: 0.15-0.73) were variables significantly associated with early newborn bathing practice.

Early neonatal bathing practice in this study is high and needs priority as it results in neonatal hypothermia and its complications. Therefore, Education for women and their families on delayed bathing of their newborns could begin in antenatal care visit, on admission into the labor and delivery unit and again on the postpartum unit.