Relationship of the level of knowledge regarding essential intrapartum and newborn care and utilization of healthcare facilities of mothers 18-35 years old living in Barangay Zone 1, Dasmarinas City, Cavite in 2013 : a cohort study

This study utilized a cohort research design. Sixty six (66) mothers ages 18-35 years old were selected using simple random sampling and asked to answere a questionnaire adapted from Saving Newborn Lives: Care of the Newborn Training Guide by the Save the Children Federation published in 2005. Data was analyzed through frequency, percentage and Chi-square test. Based on the results of the study, 45 mothers used public health care facilities (31.82%). Majority of the respondents were high school graduates with 1-2 children. More than half of the mothers included in the study where Philhealth non-members. The study concluded that the risk ratio or relative risk was 0.5 with p-value of 0.0001372071 (0.3389, 0.7378) indicating an association between the level of knowledge regarding essential intrapartum and newborn care and postnatal utilization of health care facilities. All of the respondents used health care facilities. All of the respondents used health care facilities for newborn care; they differed on whether they seek health care from public or private health care facilities. Adequate knowledge was deemed protective; mothers with adequate knowledge were more likely to utilize health care facilities postpartum than those with inadequate knowledge