Mothers' knowledge and belief on breast feeding.

It is believed that breastfeeding is universally practiced, however, mothers' knowledge and belief towards breastfeeding and related conditions is not well known. A cross-sectional survey was thus conducted in 1998 in Adigrat town, to assess the knowledge and belief of mothers towards breastfeeding. The study was carried-out on 317 mother-child pairs of 0-2 years old children. The conventional cluster sampling technique was utilized to select the study subjects. Almost all mothers, 308(92%) of them considered human milk as the best milk for good child growth compared to cow's milk and/or formula milk. A higher proportion, 253 (80%) of mothers considered breast milk alone sufficient enough to feed a baby up to the age of 6 months. The majority, 310 (97%) suggested not to breast feed when a mother gets pregnant. Three quarters of mothers preferred not to breast feed when the mother gets sick. The majority, 288 (91%) of mothers suggested not to breast feed when the child gets sick. In conclusion though mothers value breast milk as the best child feed, their knowledge and belief towards breastfeeding the child when the baby/mother gets sick, and the mother gets pregnant is very poor. These are potentially harmful beliefs, which could lead to the dangerous practice of abrupt cessation. These harmful beliefs should be well addressed and minimized through continuous health education.