Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Among Mothers of Infants Regarding Breastfeeding

Objective: This study aims at understanding the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice of breastfeeding among mothers and the factors associated with good knowledge about breastfeeding.

Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study among 251 mothers of infants admitted in the pediatric wards of SAT Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram was conducted during November-December 2019. The mothers of infants born between 37 and 42 weeks of gestation and without major birth defects were included in the study. The data were entered into an MS Excel sheet and analyzed using Statistical Package of Social Sciences version 26.0. Significance of association was tested using Chi-square test and multivariate analysis was done using binary logistic regression test.

Results: The mean age of the participants was 26.25 (SD 4) years. On multivariable analysis, higher education and older age were found to be significantly associated with good knowledge. Independent sample T-Test results show that there was a statistically significant difference between the mean age of mothers with good knowledge (26.4(±4), 25.14(±3.7)), p-0.015 and statistically significant association was found between the mean attitude scores (34.07(5.58)) with current breastfeeding practices (p=0.002). Chi-square test shows that exclusive breastfeeding was significantly associated with the mother's age (p=0.006); 64.2% of women practicing exclusive breastfeeding were less than 25 years of age. This study also demonstrated a significant association between the initiation of breastfeeding within an hour and exclusive breastfeeding (p=0.003).

Conclusion: This study shows that mothers with higher age and higher educational qualifications were significantly associated with good knowledge about breastfeeding. Even though mothers have good knowledge, nearly half the mothers only exclusively breastfeed their infants for six months. Improving the educational qualification of women and increasing awareness about the benefits of breastfeeding among young women will promote breastfeeding practices.