Health and Nutritional Status of Postpartum Mothers Correlates and Intervention

Abstract

A study on Health and nutritional status of postpartum mothers: Correlates and newlineintervention was conducted under the aegis of University of Agricultural Sciences, newlineDharwad during 2020-23 in Vijayanagar district, Karnataka. The objectives of the newlineresearch were to assess health and nutritional status of postpartum mothers and identify newlinerisk factors, to study the existing practices and knowledge about care of postpartum newlinemothers, to know the association between personal and familial factors on the health newlineand nutritional status of mothers, utilization of postnatal care services by the mothers newlineusing QUAN-qual mixed research method. And an intervention package was developed newlineto improve the dietary intake of food, knowledge on postnatal care and reduce the newlinepostpartum depression symptoms among mothers and it was tested for its efficacy. newlineConstructivist Grounded theory case study approach was adopted in qualitative method. newlineThe total sample of the study comprised 810 mothers from three talukas of newlineVijayanagara distict. Diet survey was conducted using 24-hour recall method and a newlinevalidated self structured questionnaire, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) newlineby Cox et al. (1987), Socio Economic Scale by Agarwal et al. (2005), Infant behaviour newlinequestionnaire Revised very short form Rothbarth et al. (2006), Couple satisfaction newlineindex by Funk and Rogge (2007), Parenting stress index short form by Abidin (1995) newlinewere used. newlineResults of the study indicated that the consumption of all the nutrients by newlinepostpartum mothers was significantly lower (lt50 % adequacy) than the RDA. The newlinefactors which influenced the poor nutritional status among postpartum mothers were newlinenon-working status, more number of years of marriage, postpartum depression, poor newlinenutritional knowledge and high morbidity status. The overall prevalence of postpartum newlinedepression and utilization of postnatal care services were found to be 28.80 per cent and 32.46 per cent respectively. The significant risk factors associated with postpartum newlinedepression were older mothers, late