Immediate newborn care practice and associated factors among newborns delivered at public health facilities of debre markos town, north west Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Deaths in the first month of life, represent 47% of total deaths among children under five. Mortality among children under five declines globally while it is more and more concentrated in the first days of life. This makes focus on immediate newborn care more critical than ever before. However there is limited studies in Ethiopia in general and in the study area in particular. Objective: The main aim of the study is to assess level of immediate newborn care practice and associated factors among newborns delivered at public health facilities of Debre Markos Town, North West Ethiopia from March 28 to May 27, 2020. Methods: Facility based cross sectional study with quantitative and qualitative method was conducted. The study included all public health facilities in the Town.(1 hospital and 4 health centers).For quantitative study a total 286 mothers with their newborns were included. For qualitative study 10 key-informants were interviewed. Pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire and observational checklists were used for the data collection. Collected data were entered into Epi-data version 3.1, and exported to SPSS version 22 for analysis. Binary and multivariable logistic regression was done. Independent variables with P-value of <=0.25 in bivariable analysis were considered as candidate for multivariable analysis. P-value < 0.05 was used as cut off point for presence of statistical significance. Results: The Level of immediate newborn care practice was 76.9% [(95% CI = (72.0-82.0)].History of ANC follow up(AOR=3.36;95%CI:1.50,7.53), mother’s knowledge on ENC(AOR=5.29;95%:2.00,14.00),birth-preparedness(AOR=7.80;95%:3.36,18.06) and availability of drugs, equipment and materials (AOR=6.79;95%CI:3.05,15.12) were found to be independent predictors of the level of immediate newborn care practices. Conclusion: The Level of immediate newborn care practices among newborn neonate was found to be unsatisfactory in this study area with regard to the national target. So it is important to promote immediate newborn care through adequate supply of essential drugs and equipment’s, counselling and education on immediate newborn care, promotion of birth preparedness activity and strengthen ANC service for all pregnant women.