Breast Feeding Practices among Families of Armed Forces Personnel in a Large Cantonment.

BACKGROUND

There seems to be a gap in the available literature and scientific knowledge about breast-feeding practices among families of armed forces personnel in our country, which needs to be studied.

METHODS

A cross sectional epidemiological study design was undertaken on a randomly selected sample of 175 families of armed forces personnel staying in a large cantonment and having at least one child in the age group of 3-24 months.

RESULT

The study observed positive association between various breast feeding practices such as feeding colostrum, demand/scheduled feeding, exclusive breast feeding for 4-6 months, partial breast feeding for 6 - 18 months and various sociodemographic variables such as age, religion, socio-economic status of mother (military rank of husband), parity and place of residence of the mother (where childhood was spent).

CONCLUSION

Higher proportion of mothers feeding colostrum was observed because of better educational status of mothers and organized health education activities available to the families of armed forces personnel. Majority (89.14%) gave demand feed and only 10.86% gave scheduled feed. On the other hand a relatively smaller percentage (47.43% and 29.32%) followed the correct practice about duration of exclusive and partial breast-feeding respectively.