Mothers' and Caregivers' Knowledge and Experience of Neonatal Danger Signs: A Cross-Sectional Survey in Saudi Arabia

INTRODUCTION: The majority of neonatal deaths in developing countries occur at home. Many of these deaths are related to late recognition of the signs of a serious illness by parents and a delay in the decision to seek medical care. Since the health-seeking behavior of mothers for neonatal care depends on the mothers' knowledge about WHO recognized danger signs, it is essential to investigate their knowledge of these signs. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the knowledge and the experience of mothers and caregivers towards the WHO suggested neonatal danger signs. METHODS: A community-based study was conducted on mothers who had delivered or had nursed a baby in the past two years. RESULTS: A total of 1428 women were included in the analysis. Only 37% of the participant's knowledge covered three or more danger signs. The frequently reported participants' knowledge of danger signs in this study was for yellow soles (48.0%), not feeding since birth or stopping to feed (46.0%), and signs of local infection (37.0%). The majority (69.0%) of the participants had experienced at least one of the danger signs with their baby. The noteworthy frequent reports of the participants' experiences were for yellow soles (27.0%), not feeding since birth or stopping to feed (25.0%), and umbilical complications (19.0%). CONCLUSION: The proportion of mothers with knowledge of at least three neonatal danger signs is low. There is a need for developing interventions to increase a mother's knowledge of newborns danger signs.