EFFECTIVENESS OF EDUCATIONAL PACKAGE ON KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE REGARDING KANGAROO MOTHER CARE AMONG MOTHERS OF LOW BIRTH WEIGHT BABIES

Kangaroo mother care is a method of care of preterm infants. The method involves infants being carried, usually by the mother, with skin-to-skin contact. The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of educational package on knowledge and attitude regarding kangaroo mother care among mothers of low birth weight babies. A pre experimental one-group pretest - posttest design was adopted for the study. The study was conducted among 60 mothers of low birth weight babies at Selected Hospitals, Chennai. Non probability convenient sampling technique was adopted to select the samples for the present study. The Tool for data collection consisted of 3 sections. Section A comprised of demographic variables, Section B consisted of structured questionnaire for assessing the knowledge and 3 point Likert scale for assessing the attitude among mothers of low birth weight babies. The current study findings revealed that,, there is a significant difference between pretest and posttest level of knowledge score of mothers of low birth weight babies regarding kangaroo mother care at p=0.001 level of significance. The comparison of the pre and posttest attitude score revealed that, there is a significant difference between pretest and posttest attitude score of mothers of low birth weight babies regarding kangaroo mother care p=0.001 level of significance. Regarding the correlation between post test knowledge and attitude score, the calculated r value is 0.624, it shows there was a positive correlation between post test knowledge and attitude score. It was evident, that as knowledge level increases, and attitude also will be increased. The current study finding revealed that,, there is a significant difference between pretest and posttest level of knowledge and attitude score of mothers of low birth weight babies regarding kangaroo mother care at p=0.001 level of significance. There was 38.92 percent of knowledge gain and 37.43 percent of attitude gain after the intervention which indicates that the educational package was effective in improving the knowledge and attitude of mothers of low birth weight babies regarding kangaroo mother care.