Saima Pirzada, Zahid Anwar*, Fouzia Ishaq, Muhammad Azhar Farooq, Nazia Iqbal, Rafia Gul and Fatimah Noor

Department of Paediatrics, Fatima Memorial Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan

*Corresponding Author: Zahid Anwar, Department of Paediatrics, Fatima Memorial Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan.

Received: October 25, 2021; Published: November 17, 2021

Abstract

Background: Safe cord care practices in newborns reduce neonatal infections and deaths. We conducted this study to document the frequency of different cord care practices.

Methods: It was a questionnaire-based study done over 6 months in 3 tertiary care hospital of Lahore namely Fatima Memorial Hospital, Mayo Hospital and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. Doctors interviewed mothers and female attendants of the newborns during rounds and neonatal OPD visits. The answers recorded data about socio-demographic characteristics and cord care practices.

Result: A total of 3115 females participated. The socio-demographic data shows mean age of 32.08 + 8.1 years. 38.3% had no education, 31.4% had few to 9 years of education and 32.3% had 10 or more years of education. 68.1% of the female resided in Lahore or other cities. 52.7% had no prior experience of newborn care, 13.9% being unmarried and remaing having no or 1^st child in hospital. 62.2% were house wives.

79.9% would apply something, commonest being methylated spirit (41.7%) and ghee or oil (17.4%). 13.6% did not know of any practise. Antimicrobial agents were used by 61.2%. Few adopted dry cord care (7.3%) and chlorhexidine (0.1%).

Medical personnel (doctors, nurses and lady health workers) advised 55.3%, whereas grandmothers and close relatives influenced 15.3% females. 28.2% declined any knowledge.

Conclusion: We need to educate our medical personnel as well as all available family members in an effort to propagate safe cord care practices.

Keywords: Newborn Care; Cord Care; Chlorhexidine; Methylated Spirit; Umbilical Cord

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Citation

Citation: Zahid Anwar., et al. “ Cord Care Practices in Newborns - Fresh Look into Old Problem”. Acta Scientific Paediatrics 4.12 (2021): 26-30.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2021 Zahid Anwar., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.