An Epidemiological Study on Knowledge, Attitude And Practices of Breast-Feeding And Newborn Care among Mothers in Pali district of Western Rajasthan, 2024

Introduction: Breastfeeding is one of the most important determinants of child survival, birth spacing, and prevention of childhood infections. As per NFHS- 5, in Rajasthan, the current IMR and NMR are at 35.2 and 24.9 per 1000 live births respectively. Safe delivery, early breastfeeding ,new born care within first few days and correct weaning practices are very crucial for the health of mothers and their baby. With so many interventions on Maternal and child health among rural population improvements are apparent but socio cultural norms still dictate practices in arid regions of Western Rajasthan. The study findings aim to orient the breastfeeding promotional activities and channelize efforts where gaps still exist in correct breast-feeding and newborn care practices. Objectives To study knowledge and attitude about breastfeeding and newborn care in rural areas of XXX district of Western Rajasthan . To study factors affecting breastfeeding and newborn care practices including weaning patterns in the selected rural area. Methods: An analytical cross sectional study among mothers of less than one year old infants was conducted using a pretested questionnaire in villages of catchment area of RHTC of GMC Pali using convenient sampling until the sample size of 384 was reached. Results : Most mothers 98% had hospital deliveries, 56% initiated breastfeeding within first hour, scissors were used to cut the umbilical cord in 70% of the home deliveries and 86% gave prelacteals. Colostrum was fed by 80%of the mothers interviewed. Exclusive breastfeeding was just 12% in our study. Weaning foods consisted of goat’s milk with wheat chapattis or biscuits in goats milk among others. No tinned powder milk formulas or tetra packs were. Early bathing and use of kajal were other incorrect practices . Immunization and growth monitoring showed coverage of >80%.There was statistically significance between parity, and type of delivery with the good practices (with p-value <0.05) respectively. Among participants 77% had good knowledge but only 47% followed correct practices. Conclusions : Significant improvement was seen in practices regarding safe delivery ,initiation of breast feeding , colostrum feeding and cord care. Pre lacteal feeds , non-exclusive breast feeding, unhealthy weaning foods were points of concern . Existing gaps between knowledge and action can be filled by repeated emphasis on desired good practices.