Abstract:
Background: World health organization (WHO) considers neonatal hypothermia as a decrease
of axillary temperature in infant which is below thirty point five degree Celsius. Hypothermia
in neonate is a big problem as it contributes globally to newborn mortality and morbidity.
Mothers as nearest caregivers of neonate are supposed to recognize danger signs that affect the
newborn baby including hypothermia which is one of them in order to apply best practices
regarding neonatal hypothermia prevention.
The Aim of this study: The aim of the current study was to assess mothers‟ knowledge and
practice regarding neonatal hypothermia at a selected provincial hospital in Rwanda.
Specific objectives: The specific objectives were (1) To determine the level of the knowledge
of mothers regarding neonatal hypothermia at a provincial hospital, (2) To describe the level
of practice of mothers regarding neonatal hypothermia prevention at a provincial hospital, (3)
To establish an association between knowledge, practice and social demographic
characteristics regarding neonatal hypothermia at the selected provincial hospital.
Methodology: A quantitative cross sectional descriptive study was used. 161 mothers of
living babies was selected using convenience sampling strategy. An adopted and modified
closed ended questionnaire was used to collect data. A pilot study was done on 20 mothers
having the same characteristics as the target population to test the accuracy of the
questionnaire. Data were cleaned, coded and entered into the statistical package for social
sciences (SPSS) version 21. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data.
Results: Results shown that among the 161 mothers 97 of them (60.2%) had inadequate
knowledge about neonatal hypothermia, whereas the remaining (39.8%) have an adequate
knowledge. Regarding practice, only 42 of 161 mothers (26.1%) had good practice.
Conclusion: The overall study shown that mother‟s knowledge and practice regarding
neonatal hypothermia are still low. There is a need to assess promptly the knowledge and
practice among mothers in terms of hypothermia to decrease subsequent death related to
neonatal hypothermia.
