The development of guidelines for self-care among postpartum mothers

Abstract

Postpartum mothers undergo physical, emotional, mental, and social changes that may cause health problems and can result in various illnesses and complications. This action research aimed to study the problem situations and needs for caring of postpartum mothers as well as develop a guideline for self-care of postpartum mothers and examine outcomes of using the developed guideline for postpartum mother self-care. The sample comprised 48 people, including postpartum mothers, relatives, and health care team. The research was divided into 4 phases: 1) study the situation of self-care, problems and needs of postpartum mothers 2) develop a guideline for self-care among postpartum mothers 3) implement the guideline 4) summarize and evaluate results. 

The research instruments for each phase included: Phase 1, an in-depth interview guideline, a self-care knowledge assessment tool, a self-care behavior questionnaire, and a group meeting guideline; Phase 2, a guideline for postpartum mothers’ self-care; Phase 3, a telephone follow-up visit recording form. The instruments were verified by three experts and obtained content validity index (CVI) of .80, .82, .86, and .90, respectively. Reliability test yielded Cronbach’s alpha coefficient values of .89, .93, .85, and .91 respectively. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis.

The results found that 1) most postpartum mothers had a moderate level of knowledge about self-care and 2) most postpartum mothers had a good level of general self-care. Development of the postpartum mother self-care guideline consisted of two approaches: (1) enhancing knowledge about self-care among postpartum mothers and 2) developing a postpartum follow-up visit system.

The results from applying the developed guideline with postpartum mothers showed that 1) Postpartum mothers and their relatives gained knowledge about postpartum changes, postpartum care practices, methods to prevent complications, and abnormal symptoms that require medical attention; 2) All 100% postpartum mothers experienced no complications. 3) All 100%postpartum mothers received follow-up home visits via telephone; and 4) All 100% postpartum mothers with self-care issues had their problems resolved. Therefore, the self-care guideline for postpartum mothers derived from this study have led to improved knowledge in self-care and better self-care behaviors among postpartum mothers, with no complications observed.