Knowledge of Mothers regarding Premature Baby Care in Mosul city

Background: Premature babies, those born very early, often have complicated and medical problems. Typically, complications of prematurity are varying. The premature baby has a higher risk of complications. The baby will likely need a more extended hospital stay in a special nursery unit at the hospital, depending on how much care requires. Mother is faced with numerous challenges by experiencing a premature birth; therefore, knowing about the mother's efforts and knowledge regarding premature infants. The present study was carried out to explore the mothers' knowledge regarding prematurely born infants. Patients and methods: This survey was conducted amongst 100 mothers visiting the Al Khansa Hospital and Ibn Al-Atheer, both hospital, specialized in the maternity and pediatric. The collection of data was done for the period of 15th November 2019 until 28th February 2020. A questionnaire form consisting of multiple-choice questions about knowledge about infant premature health was distributed to the volunteer mothers. The data was compiled and analyzed statistically. A Chi-Squair was used in data analysis resulted. Results: In the present study, 53% of mothers scored 50 or less (poor knowledge), showing inadequate knowledge about infant premature health. Mother’s knowledge about infant premature health showed a significant positive correlation with her education, the order of childbirth, age at childbirth, and socioeconomic status (P-value<0.001) . Conclusion: The present study concludes that mothers have inadequate knowledge of premature infant health. Factors like mother's education, birth order of the child, mother's age at childbirth, and her socioeconomic status are related to the mother's knowledge


INTRODUCTIONA
Preterm is defined as babies born alive before thirty-seven weeks of pregnancy are completed. There are sub-categories of preterm birth, based on gestational age extremely preterm less than 28 weeks very preterm 28 to 32 weeks moderate to late preterm 32 to 37 weeks (Quinn et al., 2016) (Glass et al., 2015).
An evaluated 15 million preterm babies are born every year. That is more than 1 in 10 babies (Kinney et al., 2012). About 1 million children die each year due to problems of preterm birth. Worldwide, prematurity is the leading cause of death in children under the age of 5 years. Also, in almost all countries with reliable data, preterm birth rates are growing. More than 60% of preterm births occur in Africa and South Asia, but preterm birth is truthfully a global problem. In the lower-income countries, on average, 12% of babies are born too early compare with 9% in higherincome countries. Therefore the lowincome families are at higher risk than rich (Blencowe et al., 2013).
In survival rates about the world are stark.
In low-income settings, half of the babies born below 32 weeks (2 months early) die due to a lack of feasible, cost-effective care, such as warmth, breastfeeding care, and primary care for infections and breathing problems (Lawn et al., 2013). In high-income nations, nearly all of these babies survive. Suboptimal use of skill in middle-income settings is causing an increased load of disability among preterm babies who survive the neonatal period (Pignotti & Donzelli, 2015).
Preterm birth occurs for a variety of reasons. Most preterm births happen spontaneously, but some are due to early induction of labour or caesarean birth, whether for medical or non-medical reasons. life; yet less than 10% of particularly preterm babies die in high-income settings. (Gephart et al., 2012). Premature Babies usually look like small full-term babies.
Very premature babies will be small and look very fragile with some unique characteristic Skin it might not be fully developed and may appear shiny, translucent, dry, or flaky (Mancini & Lyons, 2020). The baby may not have any fat beneath the skin to keep them warm.
The eyelids of very premature babies may be fused shut at first (Huang et al., 2019).By 30 weeks, they should be able respond to different sights. The baby's genitals may be small and underdeveloped.
Hair may have slight hair on its head, but lots of soft body hair (called 'lanugo').
Lack of stored body fat leads to Low body temperature, particularly immediately after birth in the delivery room also, Lack of reflexes for sucking and swallowing, leading to feeding problems (Xu et al., 2015). Having a premature baby is hard in so numerous methods (Dalstrom, 2019).

the objectives of the study
-To identify the socio-demographic characteristic and the sample of the study.
-To assess the mothers' knowledge about preterm baby care.
-To find out the correlation between the socio-demographic characteristic and results of the study.

METHODS AND MATERIALS Study design and setting
The current study was carried out using a descriptive cross-sectional study to adopted to accomplish the objectives of the research for the period from 10 th October 2019 until 2 th May 2020.
The study was carried out in tow hospitals Demographical distribution displays in (Table 2). Distribution of knowledge score according to mother's education shown in (Table 3). The knowledge score amongst mothers with third child was higher than amongst mothers with first and second child (P-value <0.001) (