A Study to Assess the Practice of Exclusive Breastfeeding among Postnatal Mothers in Kashmir

Abstract

Breastfeeding is the process of feeding a newborn with the mothers milk and it is very important for enhancing child and maternal health .Exclusive breastfeeding means that an infant receives only breast milk from his or her mother or a wet nurse or expresses breast milk and no other liquids or solids, not even water, with the exception of oral rehydration solution, drops or syrups consisting of vitamins, mineral supplements or medicines. For almost all infants, breastfeeding remains the easiest, healthiest and least costly method of feeding to meet the needs of infants. However, only 40% of children worldwide are exclusively breastfed which is far from the recommendation. In low income and middle-income countries, only 37% of children are exclusively breastfed. Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is recommended for the first six months of age by the World Health Organization. Methods: The study was carried out among randomly selected post natal mothers in a selected hospital Kashmir. Data collection was done with the help of face to face interview using a pre-tested and predesigned structured questionnaire having information about demographic profile of study participants and practices of breast feeding. The sample size was 60 postnatal mothers. Result: The data was analyzed by calculating the score in terms of frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, chi- square, and paired T- test. The study findings revealed that 26.7% mothers were having poor practice regarding breastfeeding, 50.0% were having fair practice and 23.3% mothers were having good practice regarding breast feeding practices.