ASSESSMENT OF KNOWLEDGE OF MOTHERS REGARDING BREASTFEDNG OF THEIR CHILDREN IN URBAN AND RURAL AREA

*Micah Susan Mathew, Navya Mariam Koshy, Abiya Jose, Ganga Sanal, Nisha Pothen and Dr. Jiji Alfred

ABSTRACT

Background: Knowledge, attitude and practice of mothers regarding the basic health care needs of their child is inevitable for maintaining good health to create a better future. Breastfeeding has several health benefits to both mother and infant. However, despite strong evidence the prevalence of breastfeeding remains low worldwide. The objective of our study was to determine knowledge of mothers regarding breastfeeding of their child in both urban and rural areas and to determine the impact of counselling. Methodology: Our study was a prospective cross-sectional study with 300 participants, 150 each from rural and urban locations and was carried out in Eraviperoor Gram panchayath and Thiruvalla Municipality from Pathanamthitta district. Result: Compared to rural mothers, urban mothers had better knowledge regarding various aspects of breastfeeding such as exclusive breastfeeding, importance of colostrums, time of weaning and breastfeeding, benefits of breastfeeding to child and mother, etc. Conclusion: Even though the knowledge of urban mothers were better than their rural counterparts, we can‟t say that all rural mothers didn‟t know about various aspects of breastfeeding and intervention given in the form of counselling resulted in increasing the knowledge regarding the same among both urban and rural groups. So proper counselling, and a holistic level of support and guidance should be given to mothers, which is possible by strengthening and streamlining the existing programs designed for the same.

Keywords: Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF), Colostrums, Weaning, Mother.