Home-based Interventional Program on Low Birth Weight Baby Care

Effectiveness of Home-based Interventional Program on Mothers' Performance Concerning Low Birth Weight Baby Care in Erbil City

The goal of this interventional study is to evaluate whether a home-based interventional program for mothers can improve their knowledge and performance in caring for their low birth weight baby at home. The study focus on LBW babies, Particularly [ Low Birth Weight baby who their weight less than 2500g and Very Low Birth Weight babies who their weight less than 1500g], and aims to determine that home based interventional program will improve the health outcome of low birth weight babies.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. How do home-based intervention programs improve mothers' performance and associated health outcomes in the care of low birth weight (LBW) infants?
2. How effective is a home-based intervention program in improving mothers' knowledge regarding low birth weight (LBW) baby care in Erbil during 2025-2026?

This interventional study aims to explore the effectiveness of home-based interventional program on mothers' performance concerning low birth weight baby care.In Erbil City, many mothers of LBW infants lack adequate support mechanisms after hospital discharge, leading to suboptimal care practices and infant health outcomes. This study will assess the role of home interventional program on improving mother's knowledge, performance, and enhancing LBW infant health outcome.

The study will involve two groups of mothers with Low Birth weight baby:

Intervention Group: Mothers will receiving structured home-based interventional program regarding thermoregulation, skin to skin contact, breastfeeding, umbilical care, skin care, infection prevention, and recognizing danger signs at home.

Control Group: Mothers will not receiving structured home-based interventional program regarding thermoregulation, skin to skin contact, breastfeeding, umbilical care, skin care, infection prevention, and recognizing danger signs at home.

The home-based interventional program will cover the following...

• Perform home care management regarding thermoregulations
• Know the way of heat loss among newborns
• List the benefits of skin-to-skin contact for mothers and babies.
• Demonstrate skin to skin contact care.
• Explain the benefits of breastfeeding for mothers and babies.
• Apply home care management regarding breastfeeding.
• Model ways of expressing breast milk.
• Practice cup feeding for low birth weight baby at home.
• Illustrate home care management regarding infection prevention.
• Perform home care management regarding skin and umbilical care.
• Describe home care management regarding recognizing danger signs.

Data will collect by the following techniques:

1. All mothers (control and intervention groups) will interview for explaining the purpose of the study.
2. All mothers in (control and intervention groups) will expose to the pre-test in order to detect the knowledge and performance of mothers.
3. All mothers of the (intervention group) will expose to home based interventional program.
4. All mothers in (control group) will not expose to home based interventional program.
5. All mothers in (control and intervention groups) will expose to post-test, approximately two weeks after the implementation of the program.
6. All mothers in (control and intervention groups) will expose to post-test, approximately three months after the implementation of the program.

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Low birth weight< 2500gram

Exclusion Criteria:

1. extremely low birth weight (<1000gram).
2. Orphan children (mother's die).
3. Baby with congenital anomalies.