Effectiveness of Planned Teaching Program on the Home Care Management of Preterm Babies among Postnatal Mothers of Hospitalized Preterm Babies in the Institute of Child Health, Egmore, Tamil Nadu

Ab s t r Ac t Background and objectives: Premature infants (born before 32 weeks of gestation excluding extremely preterm babies) are at greater risk of shortand long-term complications, including disabilities and impediments in growth and mental development. Significant progress has been made in the care of premature infants, but still there is a need to give more attention at home to the special aspects of care of these babies. The study aimed to assess the effectiveness of planned teaching program on the home care management of preterm babies among postnatal mothers. Materials and methods: A quantitative research approach is adopted with the pre-experimental (one group pretest–posttest only) research design and a purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample of 60 postnatal mothers who have hospitalized their preterm babies (born before 32 weeks of gestation excluding extremely preterm babies) in the Institute of Child Health, Egmore. The pretest was conducted by using a structured questionnaire, and the planned teaching program (power point) was implemented to postnatal mothers regarding the home care management of preterm babies. The posttest was conducted after 7 days of pretest. Results: The results show the effectiveness of planned teaching program on the home care management of preterm babies among postnatal mothers between the pretest and posttest, and the p value was highly significant at the p < 0.001 level. Conclusion: The planned teaching program on the home care management of preterm babies among postnatal mothers was implied to be effective.