Factors Associated with Mothers’ Care of Their Newborns in Saudi Arabia

Figures & Tables

Demographic characteristics of 450 mothers in Jazan region.

[i] * Missing 4 cases for age, 20 cases for occupation, and 4 cases for monthly income.

Knowledge of 450 mothers from Jazan, Saudi Arabia, concerning newborn care.

Survey item	Correct answer
Survey item	Frequency	Percentage
Awareness of the neonatal screening program	255	56.7%
Normal birth weight	332	73.8%
Feeding of newborn in the 1st hour of life	406	90.2%
Importance of colostrum	361	80.2%
Breastfeeding interval	393	87.3%
Importance of pre-lactal feeding	308	68.4%
Importance of drying newborn	362	80.4%
Importance of wrapping newborn	362	80.4%
Keeping the newborn close to his mother.	381	84.7%
The need to postpone bathing of newborn for 24 hours after birth	210	46.7%
Hand washing by mothers before feeding baby	368	81.8%
Nipple cleaning before breastfeeding	394	87.6%
Awareness of the Saudi immunization schedule	389	86.4%
Believing that vaccines can be harmful to newborns	397	88.2%
Normal frequency of newborn defection per day	180	40.1%
Knowing that inappropriate feeding positions can cause ear and chest infection	266	59.1%

Practice of 450 mothers from Jazan, Saudi Arabia toward their newborns.

Questions	Appropriate practice response
Questions	Frequency	Percentage
Initiation of breastfeeding in the 1st hour after birth	303	67.3%
Colostrums feeding	350	77.8%
Feeding interval	359	80.5%
Pre-lactal feeding	380	84%
Newborn wrapped immediately after birth	401	90.3%
Keeping newborn close to mother	356	80%
Postponing bathing newborn for 24 hours after birth	258	57.8%
Up to date vaccination of child	416	93.3%
Did not use alternative treatments to treat child	328	72.9%

Association between demographic factors and level of knowledge and practice of care for 450 mothers from Jazan, Saudi Arabia.

Demographic variables	Total	Odds of high knowledge			Odds of competent practice
Demographic variables	Total	OR*	[95%CI]	P value	OR*	[95%CI]	P value
Age
<26 years	142	Reference			Reference
Between 26 and 32	145	1.31	0.81–2.11	0.266	1.50	0.91–2.46	0.105
>32 years	159	1.05	0.66–1.66	0.820	1.82	1.11–2.98	0.017
Education level
Illiterate/primary	49	Reference			Reference
Intermediate/secondary	155	2.02	1.04–3.89	0.036	2.59	0.78–8.53	0.110
University and above	246	3.67	1.94–6.93	0.000	1.85	0.58–5.85	0.294
Occupation
Housewife	244	Reference			Reference
Employee	123	2.97	1.82–4.86	0.000	1.83	1.10–3.02	0.018
Student	83	1.54	0.92–2.58	0.095	1.01	0.59–1.71	0.963
Monthly income (Saudi Riyals)
less than 5000	158	Reference			Reference
5000–10,000	170	1.103	0.70–1.71	0.664	1.52	0.95–2.44	0.079
more than 10,000	122	1.52	0.93–2.50	0.094	1.26	0.76–2.09	0.368
Antenatal care visits
No	42	Reference			Reference
Yes	408	2.61	1.36–4.99	0.004	1.8	0.94–3.43	0.075
Age of youngest (months)
<10	147	Reference			Reference
Between 10 and 24	123	0.70	0.43–1.15	0.169	0.89	0.54–1.48	0.675
>24	180	0.75	0.47–1.18	0.215	1.50	0.92–2.42	0.090
Number of children
1–2 children	223	Reference			Reference
3–4 children	127	1.04	0.66–1.64	0.852	1.44	0.89–2.33	0.135
5 or more	100	0.78	0.48–1.27	0.325	1.42	0.847–2.40	0.182

[i] * Odds ratio.

Association between education level, attendance of antenatal care visits, and occupation in a sample of 450 mothers from Jazan, Saudi Arabia.

[i] * Fisher Exact test.