Mothers' perception and practice on newborn care and the use of social media as informational source for newborn care at King Abdul-Aziz Medical City, Riyadh

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to measure the level of knowledge and practice of mothers on newborn care and the use of social media as a source of newborn care information by those mothers. Methods: This was an observational, descriptive cross- sectional study that was conducted at three primary health care (PHC) centers including Health Care Specialty Center (HCSC), King Abdulaziz City Housing (Iskan), National Guard Comprehensive Specialized Clinic (NGCSC) and Obstetric and Gynecologic clinics 101 (KAMC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed amongst 400 Saudi mothers to collect the data. Results: This study included 346 participants with a mean age of 32.01±6.388 years. More than half (n=208, 60.1%) participants got an average knowledge score. Additionally, 57.6% (n=196) women breast fed their children after birth, while 61.7% (n=208) gave colostrum milk. Further, 95% (n=323) women considered that the information from social media was not sufficient. It was found that mothers with educational level up to high school level, had higher average scores of knowledge (66.9%) as compared to the women with university level who had (57.4%) a less average score of knowledge, and this was a significant difference. It was also found that mothers who took information from their doctors had high average knowledge scores (69.8%) and this was again a considerable difference. Conclusion: The study revealed significant gaps in mothers' knowledge of certain child health matters. Health education in hospitals before delivery and upon discharge needs to be more regularized and supervised.