Awareness and Practice on Breastfeeding among Mothers Attending at Maternal and Child Health Clinic in a Tertiary Hospital

Abstract

Background: Breast milk is the natural food for babies which provides all the nutrients and energy that infant needs for the first few months of life. Child morbidity and mortality can be reduced through the proper ways of breastfeeding. So this study aims to find out the awareness and practice on breastfeeding among mothers attending at maternal and child health clinic in Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital.

Methods:A descriptive cross sectional study design was used. Non probability purposive sampling technique was used to collect data from 146 mothers. Data were collected through in-person interview technique by using semi structured questionnaire. Data were computed and analyzed with SPSS version 20 for descriptive and inferential statistics to find out the result.

Results: Higher number of the respondents (64.4%) had good awareness and more than half (58.2%) of the respondents had given exclusive breastfeeding for six months. Prelacteal feeding was practiced by 13.6% and initiation of breastfeeding within 1 hour of delivery by 39% of the respondents, 28.1% of the respondents had practiced expressed breast milk feeding. Statistically significant association was found between maternal education level and the awareness on breastfeeding (p=0.018).

Conclusion: The study concluded that, though the higher numbers of the respondents had good awareness, all of them had not practiced exclusive breastfeeding. Prelacteal feeding was still practiced by few mothers. So the results point to the necessity of educating women to practice breastfeeding correctly.