Assessment of an Educational Program Aimed at Improving Nurses-Midwives’ Knowledge about the Benefits of Immediate Skin-to-Skin Contact Post-Delivery in Kirkuk City Hospitals

Background:  SSC is a professional practice by placing a newborn infant, wearing only in a diaper, directly onto the bare chest of the mother  after birth. The mother positions the newborn prone and upright between her breasts, enshrouding it in a heated blanket to promote direct skin-to-skin contact. This approach facilitates the physiological stability of the neonate, encourages the prompt beginning of breastfeeding, strengthens maternal-infant attachment, and leads to enhanced short- and long-term health outcomes.

Aim:Is to evaluate nurses-midwives’ existing knowledge regarding the benefits of SSC and to determine the effectiveness of an educational program in enhancing their understanding.

Methods: A quasi-experimental study using a pre-test/post-test design was applied. A purposive sample of 60 nurse-midwives was selected to participate. Participants completed a knowledge assessment before the intervention, attended an educational session about SSC, and then completed a post-intervention assessment to measure changes in knowledge.

Results: Findings indicated that prior to the educational intervention, 70% of participants had a low level of knowledge about SSC. Following the program, 83.3% of them demonstrated a good level of understanding. The average knowledge score increased significantly from 13.28 (±8.763) in the pre-test to 44.42 (±8.823) in the post-test. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed a Z-value of -6.684 and a p-value of .001, confirming a statistically significant improvement.

Conclusion: The results indicates that majority of nurses-midwives had inadequate knowledge of SSC prior to the educational intervention. The program had a significant positive impact on their knowledge, with statistically meaningful differences observed between pre- and post-test scores.

Recommendation: Adding the SSC into the hospital system's rules will facilitate procedures in the delivery room. planning a strategy for continuing education programs to enhance the clinical abilities of nurses and midwives every six months, and to increase their knowledge and performance in this area.