Many mothers do not know how to care for baby cord, shows study
The study also revealed six out 10 mothers didn’t perform good practices of washing the baby and 17 per cent didn’t wash the baby.
Many mothers and health care providers do not know how to clean a baby’s umbilical cord, explaining the rise in the number of infections and even deaths resulting from sepsis, a study has shown.
The study done in Nyandarau County on women who had delivered at JM Kariuki Hospital revealed that all the women interviewed had no skills in cord care and didn’t perform correct cord care practices.
Conducted by the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) to determine the possible causes of increased incidences of neonatal sepsis at the hospital’s paediatric ward, the study also revealed six out 10 mothers didn’t perform good practices of washing the baby and 17 per cent didn’t wash the baby.
“From the interviews, 100 per cent of the mothers had no skills in cord care and thus, didn’t perform correct cord care practices. Some 33 per cent had knowledge of correct cord care while 67 per cent didn’t perform good practices of washing the baby,” states the study.
Neonatal sepsis is a major threat to the lives of newborn babies. It is a blood infection that occurs in an infant younger than 90 days old. It possesses adverse health and economic effects as the mother and the baby are admitted, leaving their families unattended.
“It is therefore important to ensure a safe delivery process, sterility in handling the babies’ cord and overall cord care and baby hygiene,” states the study.
From the study findings, 34 per cent of the cords had staphylococcus aureus (causes skin and soft tissue infections such as boils), 33 per cent had streptococci (causes throat and skin infection) while 16.6 per cent had pseudomonas growth (spread to people in health care settings and can cause serious infections).
A total of 10 nurses aged between 30 and 51 years were interviewed on cord care practices, 20 per cent said they did not apply anything on the cord, 20 per cent used surgical spirit while 20 per cent were not aware of the current updates..
“There’s no uniform way of cord care among nurses. We recommend that the paediatrician assists in the formulation of standard operating procedures for cord care and sensitisation on the best practice of cord care should also be done to all health care workers,” the study suggests. It also recommends that all mothers be shown how to clean cords before discharge.
