INTRODUCTION: Newborn period is a crucial period as far as a child’s growth and development is concerned. During this period the newborn has to undergo certain physical and physiological adaptation to make them enable to live outside the womb. The health of the child is important to the society as children are the basic source of mankind. The mother plays a major role in promoting the health of child. Today most of the people does not have adequate knowledge on phototherapy especially postnatal mothers in rural areas and they have less knowledge and misconception regarding phototherapy and its advantages1.
OBJECTIVES of the study were:
- To assess the knowledge regarding phototherapy among postnatal mothers
- To find out the association between knowledge level and selected demographic variables of postnatal mothers.
METHODOLOGY: Quantitative research approach was used in this present study and the research design used was non experimental survey method. Setting for the study was district model hospital, Peroorkada, Thiruvananthapuram. Sample of the present study was postnatal mothers. Sample size for the present study was 35 postnatal mothers in district model hospital Peroorkada. Sampling technique used for present study was non probability convenience sampling. A structured self administrative questionnaire was used to collect the data. It consist of two sessions. It consist of socio demographic variables and questionnaire there are 16 multiple choice questions.
Analysis: The major findings of the study were majority of subjects belongs to the age of 18-25 (54.2%), 31.42% belongs to 25-30years and 14.28% belong 30-35years. 54.28% are in the degree level, 31.42%are in secondary level and 5% belongs to illiterate level. 65.71% are from urban area and 34.28%are from rural area. 62.85% undergone normal delivery and 37.14% undergone cesarean section. 60% of postnatal mothers had undergone their first delivery, 34.28% had undergone their second delivery and 5.7% had undergone their third delivery. About 88.57% mothers have no previous awareness regarding phototherapy, only11.42% have knowledge regarding previous use of phototherapy. 48.57% samples have above average knowledge, 37.14% have average knowledge and 11.4% have excellent knowledge and 2.85% belongs to the below average level.
