Perception of Preparedness among Primiparous on Self-Care and Infant Care Before Discharge in a Private Hospital in Malaysia

Abstract

Primiparous refers to a woman who has given birth for the first time to an infant or infant, alive or stillborn. These primiparous mothers have concerns pertaining to their self-care and their newborn infants' care. These expectations and concerns of Primiparous mothers are unlikely to be met due to a lack of preparedness for information about self-care and infant care.  This study aimed to identify the perception of preparedness for self-care and infant care among the primiparous before discharge and the information needs, after delivery in a private hospital in which this study was conducted. This study adopted a cross-sectional and descriptive design to achieve the research objective. The target population was primiparous who had given birth to a healthy baby in a private hospital in Penang. There was a total of 72 participants in this study. Data was collected using a self-develop questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale to generate quantitative data. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 23.0. The findings of this study revealed that the perception and understanding of primiparous towards the information provided before discharge from the hospital has not reached a satisfactory level as primiparous were not confident enough with some of the information provided and the needs to be prepared themselves before discharge. Hence, this study concludes that future studies are needed to explore new practices to enhance the quality of maternal health care and promote positive maternal experience and well-being for mother and infant.