Vol. 2, Issue 1, Part A (2025)

Postnatal mothers are often discharged within a short time after childbirth, leaving a critical gap in support during the early transition to home, when anxiety, role strain, and low confidence in newborn care are common. Nurse-led telephonic follow-up has the potential to extend postnatal care beyond the hospital, reinforce discharge teaching, and enhance mothers’ confidence in caring for themselves and their infants. This quasi-experimental research aimed to evaluate the effect of structured telephonic follow-up calls made by nurses on post-discharge confidence among postnatal mothers. A total of 120 postnatal mothers who had undergone uncomplicated vaginal or caesarean delivery were recruited within 24-48 hours of discharge and allocated into intervention (n=60) and control (n=60) groups. The intervention group received three standardized nurse-led follow-up calls on days 3, 7, and 14 post-discharge, focusing on assessment of concerns, reinforcement of newborn and self-care practices, breastfeeding support, danger-sign recognition, and emotional reassurance. The control group received routine postnatal care as per institutional practice without scheduled telephone contact. Maternal confidence was measured using a validated Postnatal Maternal Confidence Scale at baseline (before discharge) and at 2- and 4-weeks post-discharge. Data were analyzed using paired and independent t-tests and repeated-measures ANOVA. Mothers in the intervention group showed a statistically significant increase in mean confidence scores from baseline to week 4 compared with controls (p<0.001), with greater improvements in domains related to breastfeeding, infant comfort measures, and handling minor health problems. The proportion of mothers reporting high confidence levels at week 4 was also higher in the intervention group. The findings suggest that brief, structured telephonic follow-up calls by nurses can meaningfully enhance post-discharge confidence among postnatal mothers and may serve as a low-cost, scalable strategy to strengthen continuity of postnatal care.