Effects of postpartum self-care and Infant caring knowledge and skills development program for teenage mothers, Phaholpolpayuhasena Hospital

Abstract

Objective: To compare the mean scores of knowledge, self-care skills, and newborn care among postpartum adolescent mothers who received the knowledge and skill development program on self-care skills and newborn care.

Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study with a one-group pretest-posttest design. The sample consisted of 45 postpartum adolescent mothers aged under 20 years who were admitted for postpartum care and received a 4-week postpartum checkup at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pahonpolpayuhasena Hospital. They were recruited through purposive sampling based on specified criteria. The knowledge and skill development program lasted 4 weeks. Data were collected using a self-care and newborn care knowledge and skills assessment form before and after using the program. Descriptive statistics and paired t-test were used to analyst data.

Results: For overall knowledge, the postpartum adolescent mothers' knowledge mean scores after using the program (=0.90, SD=0.04) were higher than using the program (=0.67, SD=0.08) at p<0.05 and were at statistical significant level .05 (t=20.428). For overall skills, the mean skill scores after using the program were higher than using the program(=3.34, SD=0.22) were significantly higher than before (=1.56, SD=0.41) at p<0.05 at statistical significant level .05  (t=31.961).

Conclusion: The knowledge and skill development program on self-care skills and newborn care helped increase postpartum adolescent mothers' knowledge and skills in self-care and newborn care. The program should be implemented as a nursing care standard and further research should be conducted on promoting knowledge and skills among postpartum mothers.