1Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, CMCH&RC, Trichy, Tamil Nadu
2Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Travancore Medical College, Kollam, Kerala
3CRRI, CMCH&RC, Trichy, Tamil Nadu
4Professor and Head, Department of Community Medicine, CMCH&RC, Trichy, Tamil Nadu
*Corresponding author: Neethu George Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, CMCH&RC, Trichy, Tamil Nadu, Phone numbers: 9902517493 E-mail address: neethumampuzha@gmail.com
Online published on 8 March, 2019.
Breast feeding have several benefits to both mother and infant; however despite strong evidences in support of breast feeding, its ignorance has remained high worldwide.
To assess the knowledge and attitude regarding breast feeding and its practices among reproductive age group women in rural area in Tamil Nadu.
A cross sectional community based study including 116 married reproductive age group women. A structured interview schedule consisting of questions about knowledge about breast feeding and Iowa Infant Feeding Attitudes Scale to assess attitude was administered to 116 reproductive age group women
Out of 116 subjects, 31.85% practiced exclusive breast feeding and only 61.2% of participants were aware of exclusive breast feeding, all the participants felt initial milk to be discarded, 8.6% are aware that breastfeeding protects against cancer; 23.2% felt that water is essential for baby along with breast milk; 25.8% were aware that lactation can be used as a contraceptive modality. Majority 103(88%) of mothers had neutral attitude towards breast feeding.
The attitude and knowledge level towards breast feeding is still remaining low, which signifies the urgent need to address the issue. Like unmet needs for family planning “unmet adequacy of breast feeding” should be assessed and addressed.
Attitude, Belief, Breast feeding, Knowledge, Literacy, Reproductive age group women
