• Ms. Chopade Varsha Vasant

Background: Children are the future of nation and society and mothers are guardian of that future. Care of children has traditionally been the responsibility of mothers irrespective of education. Poor knowledge on part of mothers can lead to disastrous results in the field of caregiving. LBW is the single most important factor determining the survival chances of the child. Many of them die during their first year. The infant mortality rate is about 20 times greater for all LBW babies than for other babies. Majority of the problems associated with LBW babies can be prevented by providing education to mothers regarding care of LBW babies. Thus, planned teaching programme will help the postnatal mothers to gain knowledge regarding care of LBW babies. The objectives of the study:1. To assess the existing knowledge of postnatal mothers regarding care of LBW babies. 2. To evaluate the effectiveness of planned teaching programme on knowledge regarding care of LBW Babies. 3. To find out the association between pretest knowledge scores with selected Socio-demographic variables. Hypothesis: H1 – The mean posttest knowledge scores of postnatal mothers regarding care of LBW babies will be significantly higher than their mean pre-test knowledge scores at 0.05 level of significance. H2 - There will be significant association between pretest knowledge scores with selected demographic variables. Research methodology: The Conceptual Framework of the study was based on Modified Rosenstock’s and Becker’s health belief model. The study was conducted using one group pretest and posttest, pre-experimental design. The independent variable in the study was planned teaching programme regarding the care of LBW babies among postnatal mothers, while the dependent variable was knowledge of postnatal mothers. In this study the target population was postnatal mothers and postnatal mothers with LBW babies were considered as accessible population. Nonprobability purposive sampling technique was adopted for this study. From this population 60 postnatal mothers were selected as subjects of the study. Result: The study findings showed that in pre-test majority of the postnatal mothers 40(67%) had average knowledge and 13(21%) had good knowledge whereas 7(12%) had poor knowledge. In the post-test majority of the postnatal mothers, 52(87%) had good knowledge and 8(13%) had average knowledge whereas none had poor knowledge score. Conclusion: Based on the analysis of the findings of the study, the following inference was drawn. There was a gain in knowledge scores after administration of planned teaching programme. The research study suggests that there is a need to create awareness among postnatal mothers regarding the care of LBW babies. Majority of the problems associated with LBW babies can be prevented by providing education to mothers regarding care of LBW babies.

Low birth weight babies, postnatal mothers, planned teaching programme, Knowledge.

" “To assess the effectiveness of planned teaching programme on knowledge regarding care of low birth weight babies among postnatal mothers in selected maternity hospitals of the city”.", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.7, Issue 9, page no.374-379, September-2020, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2009254.pdf

" “To assess the effectiveness of planned teaching programme on knowledge regarding care of low birth weight babies among postnatal mothers in selected maternity hospitals of the city”.", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.7, Issue 9, page no. pp374-379, September-2020, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2009254.pdf