Antenatal mothers: exploring their perception of breast feeding in a village of West Bengal, India

Abstract

Background: Breastfeeding is a universal phenomenon common to all cultures with its benefits and advantages being widely publicized. In fact, breastfeeding plays a very important role in reducing the morbidity and mortality of the under 5 children. There has been an increasing trend of breastfeeding in the western countries in the last 2 decades but the trend in developing countries particularly India remains abysmally poor. Also the information gathered from family and friends is often inadequate. The objective of the study was to find out the knowledge and attitude of antenatal mothers towards breastfeeding and their association with the different socio-demographic variables. Methods: The present cross-sectional study was undertaken in MCH Clinic of Nasibpur Union Health Centre. Response to each question was given a weighted score, scores were added to assess the perception of breast feeding among the study population and then regression analyses were done using SPSS Version 20 software. Results: Out of a total of 76 mothers, increased level of education was observed to be significantly associated with good knowledge score (OR 0.062, CI 0.004-0.979). Parity was found to have a significant association with both good knowledge scores (OR 0.070, CI 0.020-0.249) and good attitude scores (OR 0.152, CI 0.049-0.472). Conclusions: It is strongly felt that strategies for adoption of correct infant feeding habits especially breast feeding can be inculcated among all mothers by intensive IEC and by updating the knowledge of the field health workers through relevant on job trainings and workshops.