Abstract

Globally, it is estimated that over four million newborns die annually from serious neonatal
infections. This study was carried out to find out the attitudes and practices of mothers
towards neonatal umbilical cord sepsis in maternity ward of Kitagata Hospital, basing on the
following study objectives; the factors associated with neonatal umbilical cord sepsis and
the prevalence of umbilical cord sepsis among neonates in maternity ward of Kitagata
Hospital. The study was conducted at Kitagata Hospital, in Sheema district, employing a cross
sectional descriptive design and enrolled all mothers whose neonates were found admitted
in the maternity ward and ready to freely participate in the study. A sample size of 96
respondents who were selected using a simple random sampling technique was used in the
study. A pretested, self-administered questionnaire was used as a primary data collection
tool which was filled by the respondents after getting informed consent. All the data
collected was kept confidential by the researcher and was analyzed by the Statistical Package
for Social Science 17.0 program after which it was presented using tables, pie charts and
graphs. Cross-tabulations were also drawn. Neonatal cord sepsis is still one of the causes of
neonatal morbidity and mortality in Kitagata Hospital with prevalence rate of 29%. Most
mother still have cultural attitudes and practices with 51% traditional medicines used to care
for neonate umbilical cord care. Uganda MOH should increase on health awareness
campaigns so that many of our newborns do not fall victim of cord sepsis, routine evaluation
of neonates and encourage ANC visits.