Effect of young rural women’s general characteristics on their knowledge and compliance with healthy practices during postpartum period

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore effect of young rural women’s general characteristics on their knowledge and compliance with healthy practices during postpartum period Research design: A descriptive study design was utilized. Setting: This study was conducted in Obstetrics &Gynecological outpatient clinic at Benha University Hospital. Sample: A simple random sample included 183 postpartum women Tools of data collection 1) a structured interviewing sheet to collect data about general characteristics and knowledge of women regarding healthy practices during postpartum period 2) self-reported measures to assess women's compliance with healthy practices during postpartum period .Results: 43.17% of studied women aged from 23 to 25 years with the mean age 22.248 ±1.794. Also 89.86% of studied women had incorrect total knowledge score about postpartum care, 99.28% of them not compliance with health practices about postpartum care. Conclusion: it can be concluded that around the most of studied women had poor knowledge about postpartum care and the majority of them not compliance with health practices about postpartum care. Reveals that, statistically significant relation between general characteristics of young rural women, total knowledge and total practices score toward postpartum care. Also there was a positive highly significant relation between total knowledge score and total practices score. Recommendation: Designing and implementing guidelines, brochure among pregnant women during third trimester and women during postpartum period to raising awareness about the care during postpartum period. Implementing counseling session to enhance women to seek antenatal, labour and postpartum health services.