Mothers making milestones: Awareness of rural mothers toward pediatric milestones

Developmental milestones are easily identifiable events during a child's development, and their thorough monitoring is of utmost importance till 6 years of age. Rural mothers are rarely explained these milestones, which may be a reason for the higher prevalence of developmental disorders in rural areas (≊18%). This study aimed to assess the knowledge of developmental milestones in rural mothers attending a rural, tertiary care hospital and further provides intelligence to the mothers on the same. These measures will aid toward the early detection of developmental milestone anomalies.

PNC mothers in the obstetric ward and mothers attending the pediatric outpatient department and inpatient department were selected for the study and assessed for their knowledge of childhood milestones with the help of a short questionnaire based on the Denver II Developmental Scale in three languages. Based on the feedback from mothers, the appropriate counseling was given.

The questionnaire was assessed based on four basic domains, fine motor skills (23.33% responded correctly), personal and social skills (51.66% responded correctly), language skills (41.66% responded correctly), and gross motor skills (41.25% responded correctly). Upon later feedback, 33.33% reported a suspected developmental delay in their child.

This study indicates a very low maternal awareness of pediatric milestones in rural areas, and considering the high prevalence of developmental delays in these areas, across the world, education of mothers is a necessary and a very effective method for early diagnosis. Formulation of a framework to address this issue on the part of the authorities and healthcare professionals is an effective solution for this underreported and important issue.