Breastfeeding awareness and perception among antenatal mothers: A cross-sectional study in urban slum population of Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

INTRODUCTION

Breast milk provides nutritional, immunological, behavioral, and economic benefits and helps to build mother-infant bonding. Antenatal mothers need to be sufficiently aware about the benefits of breastfeeding.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study is to assess the awareness and perception of breastfeeding among antenatal mothers and to find out any association between sociodemographic factors and breastfeeding awareness.

METHODOLOGY

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 250 antenatal women residing in the urban slums of field-practice area of urban health and training center; using a predesigned, pretested, semi-structured interview schedule. Antenatal checkup followed by one to one counseling for the women regarding breastfeeding was provided. Data were represented by frequencies, proportions, and associations using Chi-square, and the < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS

Most (55.6%) of the women were in the age group of 18-24 years. The mean age at marriage was 19.2 ± 2.5 years. 81.2% of them were Hindus, 13.2% had adequate, 49.6% had moderately adequate, whereas 37.2% women had inadequate awareness about breastfeeding. About 100% intended to breastfeed their children, but only 64% said that they intended to exclusively breastfeed. 66.4% knew about the importance of colostrum. Age-group, religion, literacy, occupation, type of family, gravida, and number of antenatal visits showed highly significant ( < 0.001) association with awareness of breastfeeding.

CONCLUSION

Nearly one-third of the antenatal mothers lacked awareness on breastfeeding practices. Although all intended to breastfeed, still only 64% knew about exclusive breastfeeding. These gaps need to be addressed by awareness generation activities during antenatal counseling.