Health Ce Providers’ Knowledge, Practice and Briers to Newborn and Mother Skin-to-Skin Contact in Gaza Strip, Palestine
حمزة عبد الجواد, ياسمين إسماعيل عبد القادر الهبيل
كلية المهن الصحية - العلوم الطبية المساندة-جامعة القدس · فلسطين
Mother-infant skin-to-skin contact (SSC) is placing the infant directly on the mother's chest or abdomen immediately after delivery and should be continuous for at least 60 minutes. SSC has many benefits for both mother and newborn due to stabilization of the newborn's temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood glucose level, as well as decreased postpartum hemorrhage and increased oxytocin level for the mother. SSC started in Gaza Strip since 2017 but faced many challenges and barriers. This study aimed to identify health care providers' (HCPs) knowledge, practice, and barriers to newborn and mother skin-to-skin contact. The study used a descriptive, analytical, and cross-sectional design and targeted the health care providers who work at four governmental maternity hospitals (Shifa, Tahreer, Aqsa, and Emati). The sample consisted of 267 HCPs (midwives who work in labor rooms were 62, obstetricians 153, and pediatricians 52). The study used a self-constructed and administered questionnaire. Content validity was done by 7 experts, and the reliability of the tool was high, as Cronbach's alpha was 0.84. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 25. The results showed that 35.2% of study participants were from Al-Shifa Hospital, 28.5% were from Al-Tahreer, 18.4% were from Al-Aqsa Hospital, and 18% were from Al-Emati Hospital. Also, 23.2% were midwives, 57.3% were obstetricians, and 19.5% were pediatricians. In addition, 45.3% had experience of less than five years, and 14.2% had experience of 15 years or more. HCPs had very good knowledge about SSC with a mean percent of 82%, and good practice with a mean percent of 72%, while 86.1% had training on Essential Newborn Care (EENC) and SSC. Midwives had the best practice among HCPs with a mean of 3.197. Also, training and workplace recorded a statistically significant relationship with knowledge and practice. The main barriers were lack of mothers' awareness, lack of social support and motivation, and lack of privacy. According to the results of this study, HCPs were not committed to the non-urgent separation policy of newborns, and thus they need more training on this policy. The study recommended increasing mothers' awareness about the importance of SSC through antenatal visits, maintaining privacy, and decreasing the barriers of SSC at maternity hospitals.