Naeima Mohamed El-Sayed Ahmed^1,, Bataa Mahmoud Mohammed², Neveen Mohamed Mohamed Hasaneen³

Postnatal period is the most important part of maternal health care as the dangerous and life threatening complications occurs during this period. Mothers and newborns are vulnerable to illness during this phase. So, mother's knowledge and education before childbirth regarding postnatal and newborn care is important for the health of the mother's as well as the health of newborn. Aim: intended toevaluate the effect of nursing educational package for pregnant women upon selected aspects of postnatal and newborn care. Design: A quasi-design with pre/posttests used. Setting: on antenatal and postnatal departments at Zagazig University hospitals. Subjects: A purposive sample composed of 80 pregnant women. Tools: Divided to three tools as: Tool I: Interviewing questionnaire. Tool II: Pregnant women knowledge about postnatal and newborn care.Tool III: An observational checklist regarding selected items of postnatal and newborn care. Results: It was revealed that 25% of the studied mothers had satisfactory knowledge score before implementation of the educational package then this percentage was increased to 76.30% immediately after the implementation and slightly decreased to 71.30% in the follow up phase. In additions to improving mothers' total practice score related to postnatal and neonatal care three phases of educational intervention. Conclusion: Implementation of the educational package about selected aspects of postnatal and newborn care was effective in improving level of pregnant women’s total knowledge and total practices scores, where, their knowledge and practices at the post and follow up tests were higher than that of pre-test with a statistical significant difference. Recommendations: Establishing a comprehensive training program for pregnant women especially primiparous at MCH centers are mandatory to improve their knowledge and practices on the different aspects of postnatal and newborn care which can reduce the maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality rate.

nursing educational package, pregnant women, postnatal care, newborn care