KNOWLEDGE, EDUCATION, BELIEFS AND PRACTICES OF NURSES FOR SKIN-TO-SKIN CONTACT

Abstract

The exposed child is placed face down on the naked chest of mother during the first skin-to-skin contact (SSC), with a warm blanket covering the back. At the time of delivery, skin-to-skin interaction between the mother and child decreases crying, enhances mother-infant communication, keeps the baby warm, and aids in successful breastfeeding. In order to lower the amount of milk given before nursing and to enhance the mother's role, prolonged postpartum CSS is crucial. Skin-to-skin (SSC), chest-to-chest contact among newborns as well as their mothers is defined as Kangaroo Mother Care. Psychological and physiological advantages of skin-to-skin care for mothers and newborns are well-developed in literature. WHO (World Health Organization) advised to use SSC for preterm and term newborns. SSC are not being used as widely as advised. When practice is not optimal, inadequate knowledge and personal beliefs and attitudes are usually the contributing factors. Insufficient evidences in relation to nurse's perspective and information regarding SSC. The main theme of the study is to understand and evaluate the significance of nurse’s knowledge, belief and expertise with regard to skin to skin contact therapeutic applications. This cross-sectional descriptive study collects data from 40 nurses using knowledge and beliefs questionnaire developed by Dr. Ludington-Hoe. This study has used SPSS version 16 in order to evaluate the collected data in an efficient manner. Results: The malicious age of nurses was 42.4 (SD=3.2) with the practice of 12 (SD = 2.1) years. The knowledge level of nurses was 2.7 (SD = 0.8) where 37.5% of the nurses were unsure in relation to the impact of SSC in reducing the danger of lessened brain development in neonate. Pearson correlation test revealed significant link among implementation of SSC and knowledge level (r = 0.297, P = 0.031), SSC implementation and nurse education (r = 0.85, p = 0.015), and implementation of SSC and nurses’ beliefs (r = 0.31, r = 0.024). It is likely that SSC will be practiced as widely as recommended if the nurses have adequate knowledge and education and positive beliefs in relation to SSC.