ABSTRACT:

Background: Postnatal education which start during antenatal care visits can save lives of both women and their newborn babies. Health care providers play an important role of delivering postnatal education to improve utilization of postnatal care services. This study aims at determining the extent of postnatal education practice among health care providers and its associated factors during antenatal visits in all health facilities of Busega district.

Methods: Cross-sectional study design using simulated client method was used to conduct this study. Study was conducted between August and September 2020. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain, social demographic characteristics of health care providers, profile of facilities, and practices of health care providers. The association between the provision of postnatal education and other factors was determined using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression. Ethical clearance for the study was sought from the joint CUHAS/BMC research ethics and review committee and confidentiality was ensured, no names used. Results of this study will be disseminated to CUHAS as a partial fulfillment for the award of Master’s degree in Public Health, various stakeholders such as Council Health Management Team and Regional Health Management as well as publishing in a peer review journal.

Results: The response rate was (100%, n=81 respondents). Most of the health care provider observed (76.54%) were females and most of them were medical attendants 39.51%. The median age found to be 33 years (IQR = 30-33) with a range of 22-60 years. The majority of facility were dispensaries 21(77.78%) out of 27 and 22(81.48%) are owned by government, among the 27 facilities 22(81.48%) are located in rural. Extent of providing postnatal education among health care providers was found to be 38.27%. More frequency of education provided was found higher on postnatal danger sings 27 (33.33%) and infant feeding 27 (33.33%). Among the tested variables; the level of education (i.e. diploma) (p<0.0001) and type of facility (i.e. hospital) (p<0.004) were found to be statistically significantly associated with practices on provision of postnatal education during antenatal visits.

Conclusion: Low practices in providing postnatal education during antenatal care visits is alarming which can escalate low utilization of postnatal care services since the women are not well informed about available services post-delivery. There is a need to strengthen postnatal education during antenatal care visits to prepare well pregnant women for postnatal care.