Is essential newborn care provided by institutions and after home births? Analysis of prospective data from community trials in rural South Asia

Table 2 Care practices included in the study

Care practice	Ekjut (Eastern India)	PCP (Bangladesh)	Makwanpur (Nepal)	Dhanusha (Nepal)
Antepartum hygienic care practices
Attendant washed hands before delivery	X	X	X	X
Clean Delivery Kit used	X	X	X	X
Attendant used disposable gloves	X	X
Plastic sheet used	X	X
Intrapartum and postnatal cord care
Thread/clamp used during delivery	X	X	X	X
Cord tied with boiled thread	X	X
Cord cut with new/sterile blade	X	X	X^†	X^†
Nothing/only antiseptic applied to cord stump	X	X	X*	X*
Postnatal newborn care
Clean cloth used for wrapping	X	X
Immediate wiping (within 10 minutes)	X	X
Skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby within 30 minutes	X	X
Thermal care (wrapping or skin-to-skin contact within 10 minutes)	X	X	X**	X**
Delayed bathing (baby not bathed for at least 6 hours)	X	X	X	X^‡
Colostrum not discarded			X	X
No pre-lacteal feed (breast milk first food)	X	X	X	X
Immediate breastfeeding ( within 1 hour)	X	X	X	X
Only breast milk in first 24 hours	X	X

“X” indicates whether relevant information about the care practice is available for that study.
†For Eastern India and Bangladesh, data were available both on whether a new blade was bought for cord cutting and whether the implement used for cutting (whether a new blade or not) had been boiled prior to use. For the Nepal areas, there was no information on whether the blade was new and only whether the cord had been cut with a boiled blade.
*In both Nepal areas, data were available on whether nothing was applied to the cord or ‘medicine/dettol’.
**For Eastern India and Bangladesh, thermal care was defined as “either wrapped or skin-to-skin contact within 10 minutes”. Questions on skin-to-skin were not asked in Nepal and so thermal care was defined as wrapping “Immediately” (Dhanusha) or “within 10 minutes” (Makwanpur).
‡For Dhanusha, detailed timing information was not available and so delayed bathing was defined as “not bathed in 24 hours”.

ISSN: 1471-2393