Conhecimento e atitudes de puérperas frente aos cuidados com o coto umbilical.

Abstract

Introduction: The umbilical cord is the gestational organ in which the newborn is nourished and alive, cutting the nutritional ties after birth, becoming known as the umbilical stump, becoming an environment conducive to the proliferation of bacteria, being one of the leading causes of neonatal death worldwide. The umbilical stump undergoes the mummification process during the first 15 days of the neonate's life, during which the asepsis of the stump must be performed at least 3 times a day to avoid infections. The WHO encourages care with the umbilical stump, the "dry care", that is, dry care, only in countries with low mortality and infections, but the northeast of Brazil has a high mortality rate, so it is used 70% alcohol for cleaning the umbilical stump. Objectives: To evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of postpartum women regarding the care of the umbilical stump in newborns in a state reference maternity hospital. Methods: Cross-sectional, descriptive and quantitative study, carried out in a reference maternity hospital in Piauí and Maranhão. Data were collected between May and June 2022, with 242 mother-child binomials, through an interview and the technique of non-participant observation using a systematic form using the "Google Forms" tool. which contained information on the sociodemographic and socioeconomic profile, gestational and puerperal data and on the newborn, as well as questions related to the knowledge and attitudes of postpartum women, as well as data on the performance of the nursing team regarding the care of the umbilical stump in the newborn. After collection, the data generated graphs that were extracted into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and later exported and analyzed in the Resoftware (R Core Team, 2020). Results: They pointed to a profile predominantly of women between 21 and 30 years old, from the interior of Piauí, in a stable union, self-declared as mixed race, multiparous, with high school education, income up to one minimum wage and unemployed. Regarding knowledge and attitudes about care for the umbilical stump, it was found that puerperal women usually use 70% alcohol at least 3 times a day. And as for the performance of the nursing team, most of the puerperal women responded that the nurse is the greatest proliferator of information/guidance and said they felt safe, welcomed and had their doubts resolved by the nursing team. Conclusion: The findings of the study reinforce the importance of the professional nurse, as well as the nursing team, not only regarding the guidelines for care with the umbilical stump, but also the monitoring of this care. In addition, it is necessary to highlight that despite the predominance of the use of 70% alcohol for leaning the umbilical stump, corroborating the WHO protocols for developing countries, dry care is the type of care recommended in developed countries.