A Study on Knowledge and Practice on Maternal Bed sharing Among Mothers in A Selected Hospital at Mangalore

Abstract

A non-experimental descriptive correlative research design was used to assess the knowledge and practice of 100 mothers whose babies are within 0-3 ½ months of age regarding maternal bed sharing. The sample was recruited by purposive sampling technique. A structured knowledge questionnaire and a self report practice checklist were used to collect the data. The finding in the current study reveals that 50% of the mothers had an average knowledge and 46% had poor knowledge whereas 4% had very good knowledge on maternal bed sharing and the mean on safe practice (14.42) is more than that of unsafe practice (12.52) which shows that the mothers were following safe practices. There was no significant association of knowledge and practice of mothers with selected demographic variables; however there is an association on practice of maternal bed sharing with educational status and number of children. The results showed that although the mothers had an average knowledge regarding maternal bed sharing but their practices were safe. Mothers with good knowledge can bring down the Sudden Infant death rate.