Planned Behaviour of Mother In-Laws about Traditional Newborn Care Practices in the North Gonja District

Abstract

Majority of neonatal morbidity and mortality occur within the first week of life which is attributed to poor care practices provided by informal caregivers at home. Among the plethora of literature read, studies have indicated that non-adherence to standard newborn care practices at home and socio-cultural factors contributed to the crawling decrease in newborn morbidity and mortality. It was observed in the North Gonja district population that, women in labor attend health facilities accompanied by their mother in-laws. Therefore, this study explored the planned behaviour of mother in-laws about traditional newborn care practices in the North Gonja District, using the Theory of Planned Behaviour as an organizing framework. An explorative descriptive design was used. Face-to-face interviews were conducted on 14 mother in-laws who met the inclusion criteria. A semi-structured interview guide through purposive sampling technique was used to collect data. Thematic content analysis was used to analyze the data after verbatim transcription of the audio taped interviews. Seven major themes were derived from the data which included; five (5) theoretic and two (2) emerged from the data. The findings suggested that mother in-laws traditionally have more authority over the care of their grandchildren even when it is against the wish of their daughter in-laws (daughter in-laws must accept their decisions on newborn care practices). The findings of the study also discovered that, mother in-laws were influenced by their traditional norms. These beliefs can be traced to their customary roots which they find difficult to avoid in the care of the newborn grandbaby. However, attention was drawn to the fact that financial constraints, inadequate health information, among others were possible factors to practice traditional newborn care. These findings of the study have implications for Nursing practice, Nursing research, and Nursing Education.