INFANT CARE PRACTICES ADOPTED BY MOTHERS IN THE RURAL COMMUNITIES OF UDI LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ENUGU STATE

ABSTRACT

This study examined the infant care practices adopted by mothers in the rural communities of Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State. Infant care practices, encompassing feeding, hygiene, umbilical cord care, warmth maintenance, and health-seeking behaviour, play a central role in determining infant survival and healthy development, particularly in rural Nigerian communities where access to formal healthcare services and structured maternal education may be limited. The study identified the infant feeding practices adopted by mothers, determined the hygiene and cleanliness practices employed by mothers in caring for infants, determined the umbilical cord care practices employed by mothers, identified the practices related to maintenance of warmth employed by mothers, determined the health and care-seeking patterns employed by mothers while infants are sick, compared the adequacy of performance by mothers across the different infant care practices, and determined the association between the adoption of infant care practices and selected maternal demographic data. A descriptive cross-sectional survey research design was adopted, with data collected through structured questionnaires administered to mothers in selected rural communities of Udi Local Government Area, and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings are expected to guide maternal and child health interventions aimed at improving infant care practices in rural Enugu State communities.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Infant care practices, comprising feeding, hygiene, umbilical cord care, thermal regulation, and health-seeking behaviour during illness, are widely recognized as central determinants of infant survival and healthy early development, particularly during the vulnerable neonatal and early infancy period. In rural Nigerian communities, where formal healthcare access, structured antenatal education, and skilled birth attendance can be less consistently available than in urban areas, the specific practices mothers adopt in caring for their infants often reflect a blend of traditional knowledge, community norms, and whatever formal health education they have been able to access.

Recent research from South-Eastern Nigeria, the region within which Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State is situated, offers directly relevant evidence on these dynamics. A 2025 study examining predictors of mothers' home cord care, breastfeeding, and thermoregulation practices for newborns in a South-Eastern Nigerian state found that maternal sociodemographic factors, including age, educational status, occupation, place of delivery, and parity, were each significantly associated with the quality and consistency of mothers' newborn care practices across these three domains, underscoring that infant care practices cannot be understood in isolation from the demographic characteristics of the mothers providing that care (Odira, Onyeje, Udeogalanya, Olabisi, & Esan, 2025). This finding regarding the importance of maternal characteristics is reinforced by a 2022 study of postnatal mothers attending immunisation clinics in Southeast Nigeria, which found that while a majority of mothers demonstrated good overall knowledge and practice of essential newborn care, specific sociodemographic and health-system factors, including antenatal counselling and facility-based delivery, were significant predictors of whether this knowledge translated into consistent good practice (Agu, Akamike, Okedo-Alex, Umeokonkwo, Ogbonna-Igwenyi, Madumere, & Keke, 2022).

Complementing this focus on newborn-specific care practices, research examining infant feeding practices in a rural Nigerian community found that adherence to recommended feeding practices, including exclusive breastfeeding and adequate meal frequency and dietary diversity, was significantly associated with the nutritional status of infants aged six to twenty-three months, with infants of mothers who did not practise exclusive breastfeeding found to be considerably more likely to be wasted, stunted, or underweight, providing strong empirical grounding for why infant feeding practices specifically warrant close examination alongside other domains of infant care (Olukayode, Olumakaiye, & Adegbenro, 2025). Taken together, this recent, regionally proximate literature confirms that infant care practices among Nigerian mothers, spanning feeding, cord care, hygiene, warmth, and health-seeking behaviour, are shaped by maternal demographic characteristics and carry direct, measurable consequences for infant health outcomes, providing both the methodological and empirical foundation for this study's examination of infant care practices among mothers in the rural communities of Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

While recent South-Eastern Nigerian research confirms that maternal demographic characteristics significantly predict the quality of newborn cord care, breastfeeding, and thermoregulation practices (Odira, Onyeje, Udeogalanya, Olabisi, & Esan, 2025), and that specific health-system and sociodemographic factors shape whether mothers' newborn care knowledge translates into consistent good practice (Agu, Akamike, Okedo-Alex, Umeokonkwo, Ogbonna-Igwenyi, Madumere, & Keke, 2022), this evidence has largely been generated in other South-Eastern Nigerian localities rather than within the rural communities of Udi Local Government Area specifically. Given documented links between poor infant feeding practices and adverse nutritional outcomes in rural Nigerian settings (Olukayode, Olumakaiye, & Adegbenro, 2025), there is a need for community-specific evidence identifying precisely which infant care practices, across feeding, hygiene, cord care, warmth maintenance, and health-seeking behaviour, mothers in Udi Local Government Area actually adopt, how adequately these practices are performed, and how they relate to mothers' own demographic characteristics. Without such localized evidence, maternal and child health interventions targeting this specific community risk being poorly matched to the actual practices and needs of mothers within it. It is this gap that the present study seeks to address.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

Specifically, the objectives are to:

1. Identify the infant feeding practices adopted by mothers.
2. Determine the hygiene/cleanliness practices employed by mothers in caring for the infants.
3. Determine the umbilical cord care practices employed by mothers.
4. Identify the practices related to maintenance of warmth employed by mothers in the care of the infants.
5. Determine the health/care-seeking patterns/practices employed by mothers while infants are sick.
6. Compare the adequacy of performance by mothers across the different infant care practices.
7. Determine the association between the adoption of the infant care practices and some maternal demographic data.

1.4 Research Questions

1. What infant feeding practices are adopted by mothers in the rural communities of Udi Local Government Area?
2. What hygiene/cleanliness practices do mothers employ in caring for their infants?
3. What umbilical cord care practices do mothers employ?
4. What practices related to maintenance of warmth do mothers employ in the care of their infants?
5. What health/care-seeking patterns/practices do mothers employ while their infants are sick?
6. How adequate is mothers' performance across the different infant care practices?
7. What is the association between the adoption of infant care practices and selected maternal demographic data?

1.5 Research Hypotheses

Ho1: There is no significant association between mothers' adoption of infant care practices and their demographic characteristics.

Ho2: There is no significant difference in the adequacy of mothers' performance across the different infant care practice domains.

1.6 Significance of the Study

This study will benefit maternal and child health practitioners, including community health workers and primary health centre staff in Udi Local Government Area, by providing evidence to guide targeted health education interventions. It will benefit mothers within the community, by helping identify areas where infant care practices could be strengthened. It will benefit the Enugu State Ministry of Health and public health policy makers, by informing maternal and child health programming at the local government level. It will benefit nursing and public health educators, and will serve as a reference for future researchers examining infant care practices in rural Nigerian communities.

1.7 Scope of the Study

This study is limited to examining infant feeding, hygiene, umbilical cord care, warmth maintenance, and health/care-seeking practices adopted by mothers in the rural communities of Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State, and their association with selected maternal demographic characteristics.

1.8 Limitations of the Study

The reliance on mothers' self-reported practices may be subject to recall bias or social desirability bias, particularly regarding practices mothers may perceive as suboptimal. Time and resource constraints limited the study to selected rural communities within Udi Local Government Area rather than a comprehensive survey of the entire local government area.

1.9 Definition of Terms

Infant Care Practices: The range of activities and behaviours mothers or caregivers engage in to meet an infant's feeding, hygiene, health, and developmental needs.

Umbilical Cord Care: The specific practices applied in handling and maintaining the umbilical cord stump following delivery, aimed at preventing infection.

Thermoregulation/Warmth Maintenance: Practices aimed at maintaining an infant's appropriate body temperature, particularly important in the neonatal period.

Health-Seeking Behaviour: The actions taken by a mother or caregiver to address a perceived health problem in an infant, including whether and when formal healthcare is sought.

Maternal Demographic Data: Characteristics of a mother such as age, educational status, occupation, and parity, used to examine variation in caregiving practices.

REFERENCES

Agu, A. P., Akamike, I. C., Okedo-Alex, I. N., Umeokonkwo, A. A., Ogbonna-Igwenyi, C. O., Madumere, O. D., & Keke, C. O. (2022). Predictors of knowledge and practice of newborn care among post-natal mothers attending immunisation clinics in Southeast Nigeria. Ghana Medical Journal, 56(3), s14–s23. https://doi.org/10.4314/gmj.v56i3s.14

Odira, C. C. H., Onyeje, B. T., Udeogalanya, E. A., Olabisi, O. I., & Esan, D. T. (2025). Predictors of mothers' home cord care, breastfeeding, and thermoregulation practices for newborns in a South-Eastern State, Nigeria. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 25, 605. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-025-07705-x

Olukayode, T. J., Olumakaiye, M. F., & Adegbenro, C. A. (2025). Are infant feeding practices correlates of nutritional status of 6–23 months old babies in a rural community in Nigeria? African Health Sciences, 25(4). https://doi.org/10.4314/ahs.v25i4.24