Post delivery discharge care of new mothers in the community: an input to enhancement of school-based maternal and child health programs.

Abstract

The study assessed the implementation of the post-delivery discharge care among new mothers in San Fernando, La Union. The results of these became the baseline data for the development of a school-based maternal and child health care program for implementation in the community. The study was descriptive in nature and data for the study was gathered using a self-generated questionnaire based on prescribed indicators for the practice of self-care, psychosocial care, and infant care. Data was treated using descriptive and inferential statistics. The study revealed the new mothers in San Fernando, La Union, are typically young, functionally literate, occasionally employed, and with salary levels associated with the lower income bracket. She typically belongs to a nuclear family and has access to health services. They were found to have always implemented the essential requirements for post-partum care along the physical, psychosocial, and infant aspects. All of the practices of the new mothers were found to be strengths. The study found out that different mother-related variables had a differential influence of the implementation of post-delivery discharge care. As a result of the assessment, a proposed school-based program to enhance post-delivery discharge care for new mothers in the community was developed. On the basis of these findings, the study concluded that the new mother in San Fernando, La Union was typically a young, functional literate mother striving to meet the economic requirements of raising her offspring either with limited or much support from the family. The young mothers have learned their lessons on post-delivery discharge care well and were into its use and application. Their practices did not reveal any deficiency at all and the varying personal circumstances of the mother’s experience had an influence on the extent to which they implemented the requirements of child care in the postpartum stage.