K. Ramesh

Knowledge and Attitude of Post Natal Mothers Towards Breast Feeding in A Tertiary Care Hospital, Bellary, Karnataka

Background: Breastfeeding is known to be central in an infants nutrition and growth worldwide. Fewer mothers offer breast milk in this crucial period due to various misconceptions and cultural beliefs. Our objective was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of breast feeding Methodology: A Descriptive study was conducted in a tertiary teaching hospital, Bellary, Karnataka. A total of 600 postnatal mothers were study subjects. Score system was adopted to assess knowledge and attitude. Data was collected using a semi structured questionnaire by interview technique Results: Among 600 post natal mothers, 52.7% were in the age group of 21 – 25 years. It was observed that among 600 children of study subjects, 28.7% were in the age group of 712 months. Other than initiation of breast feeding (88%), benefits of breast feeding (100%) and smoking while lactating (100%), majority of mothers had inadequate knowledge and attitude towards breast feeding Conclusion: The need of the hour is to educate our health care personnel about the importance of providing breastfeeding counseling to mothers whenever they get the opportunity, especially during the antenatal visits Introduction: Breast feeding is natural physiological and ideal way of feeding the infants. It provides a unique biological & emotional basis for the health development of the children. It offers infants & young children complete nutrition, early protection against illness and promote growth & development of the baby. Early initiation of breast feeding lowers the mother’s risk of postpartum hemorrhage and anemia. Boosts mother’s immune system and reduces the incidence of diabetes and cancers.1,2 Non-breast fed baby is 15 times more likely to get diarrhea & 3 times more likely to get respiratory infection.1 Study shows a practice of exclusive breast feeding has dramatically reduced infant mortality in developing countries due to reduction in diarrhea & infectious diseases.3 The beneficial effects of breastfeeding depend on breastfeeding initiation, its duration, and age at which the breast-fed child is weaned. Breastfeeding practices vary among different regions and communities. In India, breastfeeding practices are influenced by rural/urban residence, cultural, socio-economic factors, psychological status, religious value and literacy especially low level of mother’s education, mother’s employment.4,5,6,7 In rural areas, feeding was started only after a ritual performed on the third day after childbirth. A common belief was that only after second or third day mother was capable of secreting sufficient quantity of milk to feed the baby. Such practice made the mother more vulnerable to postpartum hemorrhage.4 there was a common belief in rural area that the first ilk (colostrums) has some unusual constituents in it, which could be hazardous for the newborn infant and the breast needs to be squeezed free of this. Thus the baby was put to the breast only after 3 days and most of the times first feed to the infant had been other than breast milk.4 Hence the study with these relationships helps in orienting the breastfeeding promotional activities and for preventing a decline in initiation and duration of breastfeeding practices.5 Need for educating mothers for promotion of proper infantfeeding practices and other aspects of childcare has also been felt.7 considering the importance of breast feeding “World Breast Feeding Week” is being organized every year from the 1st August to 7th August by World Alliance Breast Feeding Action to strengthen the breast feeding culture. Breast-feeding has decline worldwide in recent years as a result of urbanization, socio-economic reasons, changes in living patterns, advertisements, marketing of infant milk formulae and maternal employment outside the home.8,9 Studies in India have also shown a decline in breast-feeding trends especially in urban areas.10 The change in infant feeding practices began in industrialized countries, and soon followed by educated female of underdeveloped counties by curtailing the duration of breast feeding.11Since there is inadequate information regarding breast feeding practices in Bellary, present study was undertaken to understand Knowledge and Attitude prevailing in breast feeding practices in the city. Methodology: A descriptive case series study was carried out at Vijayanagara Institute of Medical sciences, Bellary, Karnataka from October 2013 to Feb 2014. The study was conducted in postnatal ward and immunization clinic of Vijayanagara Institute of Medical sciences (VIMS). VIMS is a tertiary care hospital in Bellary.Bellary is a district in northern part of Karnataka state and is around 340 kms away from Bengaluru, capital city of Karnataka The study population consisted of mothers in postnatal ward and mothers having a child of less than two years in immunization clinic. Those mothers not willing to participate in the study were excluded. Sample size was based on the number of mothers in postnatal ward and mothers having a child of less than two years attending the immunization clinic during the study period. So the total sample size was 600 and the sampling technique adopted was Non probability purposive sampling technique A Pre tested semi structured Questionnaire was used as study tool. After obtaining informed written consent, required information was collected by interviewing mothers in post natal ward and immunization clinic. The tool consisted of questions to assess knowledge, attitude and practices towards breast feeding. If any mother found to have lack of knowledge/negative attitude/abnormal practice of breast feeding, they were given health education regarding breast feeding. Knowledge and attitude was assessed using score system. Scoring of the responses to questions was done i.e, a score of 1 for the correct response, 0.5 for a partially correct and 0 for a wrong response. The total score was calculated for each mother. Data was entered in Microsoft excel and analyzed by SPSS using statistical test like proportion, Independent’t’ test and ANOVA