Knowledge and Attitudes of Antenatal Mothers regarding Human Milk Banking at Gandhi Hospital, Secunderabad (Telangana) with a View to Create Awareness

Access to human milk for all infants has the potential to save countless lives, especially vulnerable neonates, such as those born low-birth weight or pre-mature. Donor human milk made available through human milk banks is recommended as the next best alternative when mothers' milk is not available. In this prospective descriptive study involving 100 antenatal mothers, data was collected through interview to obtain the responses from the subjects by using structured questionnaire and attitude scale to assess knowledge and attitudes. Demographic variables, knowledge and attitude scores were computed using mean, SD and percentages. The chi-square test was used to find the association between the demographic variables and knowledge and attitudes. Pearson's correlation was used to find the relationship between knowledge and attitudes with p-value as 0.05. There was no statistically significant relationship (p> 0.05) with the knowledge and attitude scores of antenatal mothers regarding human milk bank Knowledge mean was 9.17 ± SD 2.821, and attitude mean was 31.58 ± SD 4.92. The present study suggests that the majority of antenatal mothers do not have previous experience as human milk donors or recipients, which could be attributed to a lack of appropriate information. The gap between human milk demand and supply is wide and unfulfilled. This indicates the need for sustained awareness programmes regarding human milk bank among antenatal mothers who would be the prospective donors.