Evaluating Maternal Discharge Readiness in Kangaroo Mother Care

Objective: To develop and apply a tool for measuring hospital discharge readiness of mothers practicing continuous kangaroo mother care (KMC) in a tertiary setting. Methods: A 22-item questionnaire was adapted from an existing tool. After a pilot (n=20), the survey was administered to 200 mothers in the KMC unit, Kalafong Hospital, South Africa from 20172018. Two items which asked participants how confident and ready they felt overall were used to categorize women as ‘ready’ or ‘less ready’ for discharge. Results: Most women (n=168, 88.0%) were categorized as ready for discharge. The mean (SD) score for all 22 questions was 9.4 (0.7). Women categorized as ‘less ready’ scored lower overall (mean difference: 1.3) and within all four questionnaire categories compared to women who were discharge ready (P<0.05). Conclusions: Although most women in this study reported high levels of discharge readiness, further research is needed to see if results are comparable across settings.