National Journal of Research in Community Medicine. Vol.6. Issue 2. Apr.-Jun.-2017(120-124) ISSN - Print: 2277 – 1522, Online: 2277 – 3517 120 Traditional Beliefs and Practices in Newborn Care among Women. Sasikala P et.al. Click here for more articles: www.commedjournal.in INTRODUCTION: All people urban or rural have their own beliefs and practices concerning health and disease. Cultural factors are deeply involved in health and sickness. Some customs and beliefs have positive values while others may be useless or positively harmful 1 . Some of these cultural factors have stood in the way of implementing health programmes. These practices which are followed may affect the health of newborn and plays an important role in physical, psychological and social development in children 2 . The child rearing practices has a profound influence on the health of growing children. The transfer of civilization including culture, beliefs, traditional practices etc from parents to children make the children into promising citizens of tomorrow 2 . A child who is breastfed has grater chances of survival than artificial fed child 1 . AIMS & OBJECTIVES: To find out traditional beliefs and cultural practices among the women attending to OPD of UHTC, NMC, Nellore. METHODOLOGY: Original Research Article A study on Traditional Beliefs and Practices in Newborn Care among Women Attending UHTC, NMC, Nellore A.P Sasikala P 1 , Jyothi C 2 , Chandrasekhar V 3 , Kumar C 4 Bhaskar S 5 Date of Submission: 04.05.2017 Date of Acceptance: 01.06.2017 Abstract Background: All people urban or rural have their own beliefs and practices concerning health and disease. Cultural factors are deeply involved in health and sickness. Some customs and beliefs have positive values while others may be useless or positively harmful. Some of these cultural factors have stood in the way of implementing health programmes. This study aims to find out among the women attending outpatient department of urban health training centre of Narayana Medical College, Nellore. METHODOLOGY: This cross sectional study was done after obtaining permission from institutional ethical committee in female patients aged 18-70 years attending UHTC, NMC from Oct 2016- Dec 2016, over a period of 3 months. A total of 180 female patients were interviewed using predesigned, pretested questionnaire. Data was entered in MS EXCEL & analyzed by SPSS version 22. Results: Most of the study participants are literates. 50% belongs to 25 years age group.78% of the participants were working. Majority of them (61.6%) belong to nuclear families. 36% of participants were initiated breast feeding within half an hour. 77.8% of participants were given prelacteal feeds to the newborn. The cultural practices and beliefs regarding bath revealed that highest percentage 79.4% of the mothers massaged the baby with oil before bath. 51.7% of the mothers gave home remedies for digestion. None of mothers applied ashes or soot or cow dung on the umbilical cord of the baby. Conclusion and Recommendations: A lot of beliefs were observed in this study which needs to be educated to the population. Key words: traditional beliefs and practices, Newborn Authors: 1. Assistant professor 2,5. Associate professor 3. Professor & HOD 4. Professor,Department of community Medicine, Narayana Medical College, chinthareddypalem, Nellore. A.P. Corresponding Author: Dr. P. Sasikala, Dept of community medicine, Narayana Medical College, Nellore, AP. email: sasilaxman7@gamail.com