Knowledge and Practices on Self-Care Activities During Postoperative Period Among Mothers with Lower Segment Caesarean Section in a Selected Hospital at Bangalore: A Descriptive Study

Abstract

Caesarean section is a major obstetric procedure. Mothers who experience a caesarean birth need special care. A daily postpartum assessment should be done which includes assessment of the women’s breast and nipple condition, the amount and character of her lochia, inspection of the abdominal extremities and assessment of her voiding. Mothers may need help with breast feeding especially during the first few days. Acute or chronic complications are experienced by 25% of the caesarean women compared to women who have undergone vaginal delivery. Maternal mortality rate is 2–4 times higher for caesarean section. The purpose of this study is to assess the knowledge and practices on self-care activities during postoperative period among mothers with lower segment caesarean section with a view to develop self-instructional module. The objective is to assess the knowledge and practices on self-care activities among mothers with lower segment caesarean section. The research design used is quantitative descriptive research design. A structured questionnaire selected on the basis of the objective of the study was considered to be most appropriate instrument for assessing the level of knowledge and practice on self-care activities of mothers with caesarean section. Convenient sampling technique was used to select 50 mothers with caesarean section. Majority of respondents 42% were in age group of 25–28 years, 54% had the family income of 3001–4000 per month, 46% had the qualification of secondary education, 30% were self-employed, 66% had parity of one, 54% were from nuclear families, 50% were Hindus and 74% had had one caesarean delivery. The overall mean knowledge score was found to be 61.4% and overall mean practice score was found to be 59.8%. The findings regarding mean knowledge score revealed that mean knowledge score was 21.52 with standard deviation 4.10 and mean practice score was 8.98 with the standard deviation 1.21. Correlation coefficient between knowledge and practice score was correlated. Chi-square value is significant for knowledge and practice scores at 0.05 level of significance. This indicates that there is significant difference with knowledge score and practice score on self-care activities during postoperative period. Hence, research hypotheses were accepted. This shows that efforts can be undertaken by the maternity health nurse to educate the mothers with caesarean section on self-care activities, which may increase their knowledge and improve practice on self-care activities during postoperative period.