Knowledge and attitudes of anganwadi supervisor workers about infant (breastfeeding and complementary) feeding in gondia district.

Abstract

Breastfeeding promotion is a significant child survival strategy. Interventions to improve early and correct infant feeding practices can result in considerable reduction in neonatal morbidity and mortality. A supervisor provides continuous on-the-job guidance to Anganawadi workers (AWWs), to bridge the gap between training and job requirement. Each supervisor looks after 10 Anganawadis and each Anganawadi covers a population of approximately 1000. On her visit to Anganawadi, the supervisor performs certain important tasks like: i) Checks the list of beneficiaries from the low economic strata, who are severely malnourished, ii) Guides AWWs in the assessment of correct ages of children, correct method of weighing the children, and plotting their weights on growth charts, iii) Demonstrates to the AWWs the effective methods of providing health and nutrition education to mothers, and iv) Maintains the statistics of the Anganawadis.(1) Her work includes health and nutrition education on various aspects of the health of a mother and child. Therefore, it is important for the supervisor to have adequate scientific knowledge about infant breastfeeding. This will help her to impart correct knowledge to mother beneficiaries (pregnant, lactating mothers, and women in the reproductive age group).(2,3) The objective of the present study is to assess the knowledge (scientific and latest) and attitude of the Anganawadi supervisors with regard to infant feeding and also to identify gaps in their knowledge.