Umbilical Cord Stump Care Practices and Separation Time in Gusau, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: The method of umbilical cord stump care practices varies from one community to another, region to region based on culture and tradition in developing countries. The cord care practice if not appropriate can result in newborn neonatal tetanus, morbidity, mortality and delayed separation of cord stump can heighten maternal anxiety. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study that was carried out from 19th March to 11th of June 2025. Structured interviewer questionnaires were administered on the mothers of healthy newborn babies at immunization clinics of Federal Medical Centre (FMC) and Ahmad Sani Yariman Bakura Specialist Hospital (ASYBSH) both in Gusau metropolis. Information obtained from the mothers were age of the mother, parity, antenatal (ANC) status, place of delivery, mode of delivery, maturity of the baby, sex of the baby, material used in clamping the cord, instrument used in cutting the cord, substances applied to the cord stump and time taken for the cord stump to separate. The data was entered in SPSS version 20 and analyzed. Results: A total of 620 mothers participated in this study with their age ranging from 15 – 50 years; 89.7% of them being educated, 97.6% of them had ANC services in the hospital but63 of them delivered at home. The babies whose mothers applied the 4% chlorhexidine to their cord stump were 351(56.6%), the rest used unorthodox substances. The cord separation time ranged from 3 – 14 days. The only factor found to be strongly associated with the cord separation time is the age of the mother. Conclusion: The cord care practices by the mothers were sub-optimal and they have low awareness about cord care. There is need for more health education on good cord care practices in health facilities and other media channels in order to reduce neonatal morbidity and mortality.