Knowledge and Practices on Episiotomy Care Among Primiparous Mothers Who Have Undergone Normal Vaginal Delivery in the Obstetric Unit of the District General Hospital, Ampara

An episiotomy is a surgical incision made through the perineum, to provide a sufficient space within the vaginal canal for the delivery of the baby. Nowadays, according to different obstetric protocols, 10-90% of women giving birth will have an episiotomy. However, episiotomy care and its associated complications can be influenced by the knowledge and practice of mothers. This study investigated the knowledge and practice among primiparous mothers regarding episiotomy care. This was a quantitative, descriptive study in which a convenience sampling method was used. A structured self-administered questionnaire was used to obtain data from the participants. Data were analysed using IBM SPSS (version 26). The findings show that 62.5% of primiparous mothers have adequate knowledge, 26.1% have moderate knowledge of episiotomy care and only 11.4% have inadequate knowledge. Interestingly, 96.6% of primiparous mothers showed adequate knowledge about the importance of taking medicines given by the hospital correctly, to prevent infection of the episiotomy incision and to speed up the recovery. When considering practice, 36.4% of primiparous mothers have adequate practice levels which is low compared to the knowledge on episiotomy care. According to the correlation studies, it was found that those who believe in herbal remedies (P=0.351) are more likely to use hot water for cleaning and showed strong correlations in certain practices such as washing hands before and after cleaning the incision, changing sanitary pads every 4 hours (P=.475) and washing the genital area with correct practices (P=0.420) suggesting primiparous mothers who believe in herbal remedies may be more likely to be health-conscious in general. Studying these patterns and trends will be useful for the identification of potential risk factors associated with certain factors, public health campaigns, targeted interventions, and future research activities. Keywords: Episiotomy; Primiparous Mothers; Knowledge and Practice; Maternal Health; Obstetric Care