فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

INTRODUCTION: Breast milk provides nutritional, immunological, behavioral, and economic benefitsand helps to build mother‑infant bonding. Antenatal mothers need to be sufficiently aware about thebenefits of breastfeeding.OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to assess the awareness and perception of breastfeedingamong antenatal mothers and to find out any association between sociodemographic factors andbreastfeeding awareness.METHODOLOGY: A cross‑sectional study was conducted among 250 antenatal women residing in theurban 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 thewomen regarding breastfeeding was provided. Data were represented by frequencies, proportions,and associations using Chi‑square, and the P < 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 atmarriage was 19.2 ± 2.5 years. 81.2% of them were Hindus, 13.2% had adequate, 49.6% hadmoderately 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 exclusivelybreastfeed. 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 (P < 0.001) associationwith awareness of breastfeeding.CONCLUSION: Nearly one‑third of the antenatal mothers lacked awareness on breastfeedingpractices. 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.