Knowledge and Practice of Umbilical Cord Care among Mothers in Rivers West Senatorial District of Rivers State, Nigeria

This study investigated the knowledge and practice of umbilical cord care among mothers in Rivers West Senatorial District, Rivers State. A descriptive research design was adopted for the study with a population which consisted of three hundred and fifty-four thousand, fivehundred and fifty-six (354,556) postpartum women in Rivers West Senatorial District. The sample size for the study was 880 which was selected using the multi-stage sampling procedure. The study instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire title: Neonatal Umbilical Cord Care Questionnaire (NUCCQ), with a reliability coefficient of 0.76. Data was analyzed with the aid of the Statistical Product for Service Solution (SPSS) version 23.0 using percentage; and point biserial correlation at 0.05 level of significance. The findingof the study showed that the level of knowledge of neonatal umbilical cord care among mothers attending health centres in Rivers West Senatorial District was good (>50%) but practice was poor. The result revealed that there was a statistically significant relationshipbetween practice of neonatal umbilical cord care and knowledge of umbilical cord care (n = 811; r = 0.60; p<0.05). It was concluded that though knowledge is a prerequisite for any healthy practice but does not translate automatically to practice. It was recommended amongothers that nurses and midwives should continue to acquaint mothers about hygienic umbilical cord care practices by emphasizing it during health talk at the antenatal clinics.