Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to assess the maternal knowledge on time to newborn first bath and its associated factors among postpartum women, southwest Ethiopia.
Design: Hospital-based Cross-sectional study.
Setting: Jimma town public health institutions, Ethiopia.
Participants: Study was conducted in systematically selected 404 post-partum women. The data were collected through face-to-face interview by pretested and structured questioner developed from after reviewing of different literatures. Data were entered into Epi-data manager 4.4.2.1 and exported to Stata 14 for cleaning and analysis. Finally, Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analysis were used to identify significant variables and significant factors were declared at a significance level of <0.05.
Primary outcome: maternal knowledge on time to newborn first bath and its associated factors.
Result: In this study 376 postpartum women included in the analysis with a response rate of 93.1%. About 32.98% (95%CI: 95% CI: 28.39-37.91) of women had poor level knowledge on time to newborn first bath. ANC follow up in the recent pregnancy (AOR: 3.35 (95% CI: 1.77-6.336), Being primipara (AOR: 0.316(95% CI:.197-0.505) and vaginal mode of delivery (AOR:0.509(95% CI: 0.251-1.031) were factors associated with poor maternal on time to first newborn bath.
Conclusion: In this study, maternal knowledge on time to newborn first bath still a public problem and effort is still in need to maximize maternal knowledge and practice towards delayed newborn first bath. Therefore, different stakeholders should work to improve the knowledge of women on time to bath and more effort is needed to promote appropriate thermal care practices both in facilities and at home.

Keywords:Maternal knowledge; Timing of newborn bath; Associated factors; Southwest Ethiopia

Abbreviations: ANC= Antenatal Care; FMoH= Federal Minister of Health; HIV=Human Immune- Deficiency Virus; NICU=Neonatal Intensive Care Unit; NMR= Newborn Mortality Rate; PNC=Postnatal Care; SVD=Spontaneous Vaginal Delivery; TBA=Traditional Birth Attendant; WHO =World Health Organization