Knowledge, Practice, and Associated Factors of Essential Newborn Care among Sudanese Women in Eastern Sudan.

(1) Background: There is a high neonatal mortality rate in countries with low resources, especially sub-Saharan countries. There is no published data in Sudan on mothers' knowledge and practice of essential newborn care. This study aimed to assess the maternal knowledge and practice of essential newborn care in Gadarif city, eastern Sudan. (2) Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Gadarif city, eastern Sudan. Postnatal mothers (384) were recruited from postnatal and vaccination clinics. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. Mothers who responded to essential newborn care knowledge and practice items at a rate equal to 75% or above were classified as having good knowledge and practice. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the factors associated with essential newborn care knowledge and practice. (3) Results: In this study, 268 (66.4%) and 245 (63.8%) of the 384 participants had good knowledge and practice of essential newborn care, respectively. None of the investigated factors (age, residence, education, occupation, parity, antenatal care, and mode of delivery) was associated with knowledge and practice of essential newborn care with sociodemographic and obstetric factors. Mothers with poor knowledge were less likely to have good practices (adjusted odds ratios = 0.41; 95% CI (0.26-0.64)). The reported malpractices were giving dietary supplements to the babies (48.2%), mainly water (40.0%) and cow's milk (43.2%), and putting substances on the umbilical cord (62.8%), with butter (92.1%) accounting for the majority. (4) Conclusion: In the present study, around two-thirds of the participants had good essential newborn care knowledge and practice. Poor knowledge was less likely to be associated with good newborn care practices. More research is needed to build baseline data for neonatal mortality reduction plans.

Rare clotting factor deficiency among Sudanese children.

: Rare clotting factor (F) deficiency is a deficiency of one or more of coagulation factors other than FVIII, FIX and vonWillebrand (FI, FII, FV, FV + FVIII, FVII, FIX, FX, FXI and FXIII) that cause bleeding disorders and are inherited as autosomal recessive. Descriptive study was conducted in Hemophilia Centre, Khartoum, Sudan. The medical files of pediatric patients presented to the center were reviewed retrospectively. Forty-seven patients (male : female ratio = 1.2 : 1) were included. The majority (93.6%) have parental history of consanguinity and around one third (31.9%) have family history of bleeding disorder. FV deficiency was the most common deficient factor (36.2%) followed by FI deficiency (23.4%) and FX111 deficiency (21.3%). Bruising (46.8%) and epistaxis (25.5%) were the most common presenting complains. FV deficiency mainly presented with cutaneous ecchymosis (47.1%). FI deficiency presented with umbilical bleeding (45.5%) and FXIII presented with cutaneous ecchymosis (50%). Rare clotting factor deficiency is an existing disease in Sudan with the male : female ratio was 1.2 : 1. FV deficiency, FI deficiency, FXIII deficiency were the common deficiency encountered.