Mothers  Knowledge and Domain-Specific Gaps in Post-Discharge Care for Preterm Infants Following NICU Hospitalization: A Cross-Sectional Study in Karbala, Iraq

 The transition from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to home places a heavy burden on the mother of a preterm infant to deal with feeding, thermal, jaundice, infection prevention and prevention, supplementation, growth monitoring, follow-up, and danger signs. The objective of this study was to evaluate maternal knowledge about post-discharge management of preterm infants and to determine the gap in the knowledge domain. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 100 mothers who were admitted to neonatal care unit of Karbala Teaching Hospital for Children, Iraq. A researcher designed and interviewer-administered questionnaire was utilized to collect data from 12 May to 1 September 2026. Participant characteristics and knowledge responses were summarized using frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations. Results showed that 60% of the participants living in rural areas, 65.0% said that they have a good economic status and 27.0% could not read and write. In total, 67.0% of mothers had low knowledge, 21.0% had moderate, and 12.0% had high knowledge of post-discharge care for preterm infants. Thermal care, vaccination, jaundice assessment, some breastfeeding-related items, supplementation, post-feeding positioning and monitoring of weight were found to have item-level responses that were more positive, with some items of feeding and monitoring identified as gaps in knowledge, and information received within the hospital identified as a gap in knowledge. Conclusions: Low maternal knowledge was found and differed in the various areas of care. Discharge education is warranted, particularly for nurses, and should be structured, literacy sensitive and include demonstration, teach-back, and follow-up post-discharge, Recommendations

Develop a uniform nurse-led discharge education program for mothers of preterm babies.
Empoy basic Arabic and pictorial resources especially for the mothers who cannot read and write.
Usedemonstration, return-demonstration, and teach-back to ensure skill mastery.
Set-p post-discharge telephone or clinic follow-up, especially for those with geographic and/or access barriers.
Carr out larger multicenter trials and test knowledge instrument and scoring system prior to wider generaisation.