Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development

India accounts for 25% of the mortality around the world. According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) report and data shown by Niti Ayog in 2013, the neonatal mortality rate (NMR) in India is 28 per 1, 000 live births, which accounts for more than half of the under-five child deaths (50/1000). The majority of the new-born deaths occur at home where a few families recognize signs of newborn illness. Delay in recognizing the signs of neonatal illnesses contributes to the death of a neonate.

To assess the knowledge of post natal mothers regarding danger signs of neonates at various primary health centres in Bihar, India

A descriptive cross sectional survey was conducted at 54 health facilities of 16 districts in Bihar in the month January, 2017 using self developed, pretested and validated structured questionnaire. Tools were validated and reliability was tested (ρ = 0.74). Data collected from 277 post natal mothers were analysed. Knowledge of mothers was classified into three categories, poor knowledge (score 1–5), average knowledge (score 6–10) and good knowledge (score 11–15).

More than one third (35.7%) mothers were third to fifth gravida. Most of the mothers (41.2%) attended two antenatal visits. Around half (50.6%) of the mother responded that they are aware of any danger in neonate. More than one third (45.5%) of the mothers were aware of fever as neonatal danger sign. Most of the mothers (39.7%) had poor knowledge regarding danger signs.

The finding of the study showed at health facilities post natal mothers had poor knowledge regarding danger signs of neonate. This alarms the need of continuous monitoring of post natal educational services and it also depicts the enhancement of educational efforts for effective education of mothers regarding early recognition of danger signs of neonate.