Perception and practice of Kangaroo Mother Care after discharge from hospital in Kumasi, Ghana: A longitudinal study

BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth

Research Article

Regina Obeng¹  Priscilla NL Wobil¹  Samuel B Nguah¹  Gyikua Plange-Rhule²  Joy E Lawn³  Kate J Kerber³  Ayi Yakubu⁴ 

[1] Department of Child Health, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, P. O. Box 1934, Kumasi, Ghana;Department of Child Health, School of Medical Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana;Saving Newborn Lives/Save the Children USA, 11 South Way, 7405, Cape Town, South Africa;Suntreso Government Hospital, Private mail bag, Kumasi, Ghana;

关键词: Exclusive Breastfeed;    Kangaroo Mother Care;    Incubator Care;    Express Breast Milk;    Postnatal Ward;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2393-11-99

 received in 2011-06-26, accepted in 2011-12-01,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe practice of Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) is life saving in babies weighing less than 2000 g. Little is known about mothers' continued unsupervised practice after discharge from hospitals. This study aimed to evaluate its in-hospital and continued practice in the community among mothers of low birth weight (LBW) infants discharged from two hospitals in Kumasi, Ghana.MethodsA longitudinal study of 202 mothers and their inpatient LBW neonates was conducted from November 2009 to May 2010. Mothers were interviewed at recruitment to ascertain their knowledge of KMC, and then oriented on its practice. After discharge, the mothers reported at weekly intervals for four follow up visits where data about their perceptions, attitudes and practices of KMC were recorded. A repeated measure logistic regression analysis was done to assess variability in the binary responses at the various reviews visits.ResultsAt recruitment 23 (11.4%, 95%CI: 7.4 to 16.6%) mothers knew about KMC. At discharge 95.5% were willing to continue KMC at home with 93.1% willing to practice at night. 95.5% thought KMC was beneficial to them and 96.0% beneficial to their babies. 98.0% would recommend KMC to other mothers with 71.8% willing to practice KMC outdoors.At first follow up visit 99.5% (181) were still practicing either intermittent or continuous KMC. This proportion did not change significantly over the four weeks (OR: 1.4, 95%CI: 0.6 to 3.3, p-value: 0.333). Over the four weeks, increasingly more mothers practiced KMC at night (OR: 1.7, 95%CI: 1.2 to 2.6, p = 0.005), outside their homes (OR: 2.4, 95%CI: 1.7 to 3.3, p < 0.001) and received spousal help (OR: 1.6, 95%CI: 1.1 to 2.4, p = 0.007). Household chores and potentially negative community perceptions of KMC did not affect its practice with odds of 0.8 (95%CI: 0.5 to 1.2, p = 0.282) and 1.0 (95%CI: 0.6 to 1.7, p = 0.934) respectively. During the follow-up period the neonates gained 23.7 sg (95%CI: 22.6 g to 24.7 g) per day.ConclusionMaternal knowledge of KMC was low at outset. Once initiated mothers continued practicing KMC in hospital and at home with their infants gaining optimal weight. Continued KMC practice was not affected by perceived community attitudes.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Nguah et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011