*Corresponding Author: drkavithar15@gmail.com 1 DOI: https://doi.org/10.52756/ijerr.2023.v33spl.001 Int. J. Exp. Res. Rev., Vol. 33: 01-07 (2023) Perception of preparedness among primiparous on self-care and infant care before discharge in a private hospital in Malaysia Kavitha Ramanathan 1* , Shenbaga Sundaram Subramanian 2 , Vijayamurugan Eswaramoorthi 3 , Nalini Somasundaram 1 , Vijaya Samundeeswari 1 and Fadwa Alhalaiqa 4 1 Sri Ramachandra Faculty of Nursing, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education & Research (DU), Chennai, India; 2 Chettinad School of Physiotherapy (CSP), Chettinad Hospital and Research Institute (CHRI), Chettinad Academy of Research and Education (CARE), Kelambakkam, Tamil Nadu 603103, India; 3 Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Royal College of Medicine Perak, Ipoh - 30450, Malaysia; 4 Department of Clinical Affairs, College of Nursing, QU Health, Qatar University, Doha, P.O. Box 2713, Qatar E-mail/Orcid Id: KR, drkavithar15@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5437-605X; SSS, dr.subramanian@care.edu.in, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6150-0928; VE, vijayeswar2003@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9677-6265 NS, nalinis.s@sriramachandra.edu.in, https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-5736- 3334; VS, vijisamun15@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/ 0000-0001-5042-634X; FA, f.alhalaiqa@qu.edu.qa, https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-0899-7883 Introduction Primiparous refers to a woman who has given birth for the first time to an infant or infant, alive or stillborn (Lindblad et al., 2022). They expect postpartum care will reduce their anxiety by providing them with the skills and the confidence to care for themselves and their baby. Women undergoing early labor benefit from professional treatment and coping mechanisms (Mueller and Grylka-Baeschlin, 2023; Bay et al., 2022). Health care professionals should implement relevant interventions to lessen anxiety and increase childbirth self-efficacy in primiparous women (Shakarami et al., 2021). However, a study conducted by Malouf et al. (2019) has shown that these expectations are unlikely to be met due to a lack of preparedness on information such as knowing how frequently to breast-feed and techniques of breast-feeding, how often to pick up their baby when crying and how often to change their nappy. A mother's knowledge of infant care during the neonatal period can raise the mother's confidence regarding infant care, and it can reduce false and traditional beliefs about neonatal care, thereby reducing Article History: Received: 20 th Jul., 2023 Accepted: 12 th Sep., 2023 Published: 30 th Sep., 2023 Abstract: Primiparous refers to a woman who has given birth for the first time to an infant or infant, alive or stillborn. These primiparous mothers have concerns pertaining to their self-care and their newborn infants' care. These expectations and concerns of Primiparous mothers are unlikely to be met due to a lack of preparedness for information about self-care and infant care. This study aimed to identify the perception of preparedness for self-care and infant care among the primiparous before discharge and the information needs, after delivery in a private hospital in which this study was conducted. This study adopted a cross-sectional and descriptive design to achieve the research objective. The target population was primiparous who had given birth to a healthy baby in a private hospital in Penang. There was a total of 72 participants in this study. Data was collected using a self- develop questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale to generate quantitative data. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 23.0. The findings of this study revealed that the perception and understanding of primiparous towards the information provided before discharge from the hospital has not reached a satisfactory level as primiparous were not confident enough with some of the information provided and the needs to be prepared themselves before discharge. Hence, this study concludes that future studies are needed to explore new practices to enhance the quality of maternal health care and promote positive maternal experience and well-being for mother and infant. Keywords: Perception of preparedness, self-care, infant care, primiparous, newborn care How to cite this Article: Kavitha Ramanathan, Shenbaga Sundaram Subramanian, Vijayamurugan Eswaramoorthi, Nalini Somasundaram, Vijaya Samundeeswari and Fadwa Alhalaiqa (2023). Perception of preparedness among primiparous on self-care and infant care before discharge in a private hospital in Malaysia. International Journal of Experimental Research and Review, 33, 01-07. DOI: https://doi.org/10.52756/ ijerr.2023.v33spl.001