This descriptive study was conducted in order to determine the traditional postnatal infant-care practices of 15-49 years old married women. The subjects were the women who attented to the health center in the province of Tokat. The sample consisted of 400 women with at least one child who attented the health center between March 1, 2006 and April 30, 2006 and accepted to take part in this study. The data has been gathered in two forms which were prepared by the researchers. The first form included questions about the subjects personal characteristics while the questions in the second form determined their postnatal traditional practices in infant -care. Permission was obtained from the subjects verbally before the study started and the forms were filled such that the questions in the forms were read to them. The results showed that the most common traditional practices included those such as making the forties of infant (97.8%), the applications when navels cord of infant fall down (94.8%), the applications to keep evil eye of infant (93.3%). It was also determined that 88.9% of the subjects swaddled their babies, 64% of them salted the baby, 29.8% of the women used porous earth instead of babys nappies, and 20.8% of the subjects delayed suckling the baby until after they heard three calls to prayers. In conclusion, it can be stated that some of the subjects who participated in this study continued some traditional practices in baby-care in their postnatal periods.
Key words: Postnatal period, infant care, traditional practices Article Language: Turkish English
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