The level of knowledge about baby care and the traditional methods of mothers with newborn in intensive care unit

In this study, it is aimed to determine the knowledge levels of mothers whose babies are in neonatal intensive care units and the traditional methods they apply. The descriptive study was carried out in Malatya Turgut Özal medicine hospital with 384 mothers between 25 January and 25 May 2022. Personal Information Form, Mother's Knowledge of Baby Care Form, and Mother's Traditional Practices for Baby Care in the Postpartum Period form were used as data collection forms in the study. The data were evaluated in the SPSS 24.0 statistical package program. In the evaluation of the data, percentage, frequency, mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum values of descriptive statistics were calculated. Chi-square test was used to compare independent variables. It was concluded that the mothers participating in the study were mostly between the ages of 31-40, had a nuclear family and did not work, and 33.1% of them were high school graduates. It was determined that the 67.2% majority of the mothers participating 74.7% in the study swaddled the baby, covered the face of the baby with a yellow cloth to prevent jaundice, tied a yellow cloth to relieve the jaundice of 77.6% the baby, and prayed to protect the baby from the evil eye. There is a significant difference between the age of the mothers and the duration of holding the baby at the breast while breastfeeding, the way of holding the baby while breastfeeding and how the baby should be laid while sleeping. It was determined that there was a statistically significant difference between the situations of sleeping, putting a hole under the baby and salting the baby. In line with the results obtained from the research, it is seen that mothers commonly know and apply traditional practices and there are practices that harm the health of the baby and the reasons for the practice vary widely, and that the mothers are commonly apply harmful traditional practices giving a sugary pacifier, tying the forehead tightly to be beautiful, and applying. Raising awareness for mothers about traditional practices that are harmful to health, planning initiatives to address the reasons for mothers to resort to traditional practices, including family elders in the training, where mothers have access to the most information and who have an effect on the reasons for the practice, more frequent follow- up and training plans for families who are far from health services and also it is recommended to plan initiatives to ensure easy access to health services.