European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Breastfeeding is crucial because it meets all of a newborn's physiological needs, including their need for contact with their mother and nutrients for growth.¹ The World Health Organization advises that exclusive breastfeeding should begin as soon as a baby is delivered and continue for six months. After that, the child should be weaned and given different foods in place of formula.² But in afluent societies breast feeding is now a lost art due to cosmetic purpose and there is a rise in bottle feeding.³

Breastfeeding offers numerous nutritional benefits to both the mother and the child, including the provision of growth nutrients, calories, antioxidants, and antibodies that are essential for the infant's healthy development. Breastfeeding mothers gain psychologically from their experience, as well as nutritional benefits like as postpartum weight loss, contraception, and the restoration of hormonal balance for their child.⁴

It also reduces the risk of breast and ovarian cancers in post-menopausal age and also reduces the chances of post-menopausal bleeding.⁵ Even though breast feeding is feasible and effective, under 5 mortality rates of India in 2020 according to WHO is 33 per thousand live births which is quite high.⁶  Promoting awareness among the antenatal women and evaluating the effective outcomes will help to promote breast feeding practices and bring down morbidity and mortality among children.⁷  Breast feeding practices are mostly influenced by the religious, psychosocial factors, and in the recent times by profession and career. Key to achieve good breast feeding is by Information, Education and Communication strategies.⁸

Data from NFHS-4 suggest that in India, less than 55% of children under 6 months of age are exclusively breastfed and about 40% are breastfed within one hour of birth. The results being very similar for West Bengal where 48% of infants are initiated with breastfeeding within one hour of birth.

In light of this, the purpose of this study was to evaluate mother knowledge and newborn feeding practices in an urban slum. The study's conclusions can be applied to help moms adopt healthy childrearing techniques and alter their attitudes on breastfeeding.

The present included cross sectional study was conducted in the Tangra area of Kolkata between June 2023 to December 2023. Total 200 mothers of infants aged 6-12 months were interviewed using pretested semi-structured questionnaire. Details about the socio-demographic characteristics and breast-feeding practices and knowledge about breast feeding were obtained. Statistical data were analysed by using Microsoft Excel and SPSS V.20 software

This present community based cross sectional study was carried out in the Tangra area of Kolkata

between June 2023 to December 2023.

Study population and sampling technique: Mother having infant of age 6-12 months in study area and agree to participated in the study.

Inclusion criteria: Obstetric cases admitted to CCU (in the study period) during pregnancy or within 42 days after delivery.

Exclusion criteria: Women who were not interested in the study were excluded.

Pre designed, pre tested schedule was used to collect the data. The questionnaire was given only

after a proper informed and written consent was obtained. Details about the socio-demographic characteristics and breast-feeding practices were obtained. Then results were analyzed at the end of data collection.

Data Analysis plan- The data was tabulated in Microsoft Excel software and analysed with SPSS V.20 software. An alpha level of 5% has been taken that is if any p value is <0.05, it was considered as significant.

Table 1: Socio-demographic profile of mothers. (n=200)

Out of 200 mothers of infant’s age group (6 months to 1 year), 89% mothers were literate and 11% mothers were Illiterate. Maximum numbers of mothers i.e. 88

This study is a cross sectional study to find the practice and knowledge of breast feeding among the mothers of 6 month to 1 year of age in Tangra area of Kolkata. In present study the proportion of having satisfactory knowledge of colostrum was more than having unsatisfactory knowledge. Similar findings were observed in Choudhary et al and Sharanya et al.^9,10 A study done by Choudhary et al found that 82.2% mother had good knowledge regarding colostrum feeding and 32.5% had no knowledge about colostrum feeding.⁴ Study done by Sharanya et al found that 82.7% knew that colostrum feeding should be given to the child, the findings similar to present study.¹⁰

In present study, 64% of mothers having knowledge regarding duration of EBF. Among the total mothers, 83% of mothers were having knowledge regarding time of initiation of breast feeding after normal delivery and caesarean section. Compared to our study, in the study done by Rajesh et al it was found that though 86% of mothers had knowledge on exclusive breast feeding only 64% of them were able to practice it for up to six months which was higher than present study.¹¹ In contrast to present study Yadavannavar et al found that, 81.19% mothers had no knowledge regarding exclusive breast feeding and only 13.36% of mother’s practised exclusive breast feeding upto 4 months.¹² In a study done by Bobhate et al it was observed that 22.9% subjects were not practicing EBF despite having adequate knowledge about EBF.¹³ Lower level of knowledge regarding exclusive breast feeding (34.97%) than present study was found in study done by Maiti et al.¹⁴ Sriram et al it was found that 96% mothers had a knowledge of exclusive breast feeding but only 68.67% mothers practiced it.¹⁵

In study done by Maiti et al found that 52.78% had knowledge about initiation of breast feeding within 0.5-1 hr of birth.¹⁴ In another Study done by Sharanya et al, 58.7% of mothers knew that breastfeeding should be initiated within 1 hour.¹⁰

Rajesh et al.'s study revealed, in contrast to the current study, a higher level of knowledge regarding the continuation of breastfeeding. The study found that while 78% of mothers knew that breastfeeding a child until the age of two is beneficial, only 59% of them were able to do so.¹¹

This study sheds information on mothers' actual practices and understanding around breastfeeding. Despite women having high information about breastfeeding, the current urban slum population's breastfeeding practices, such as exclusive breastfeeding and prelacteal feeding, were lower than the national average. Therefore, especially in urban slums, greater emphasis should be placed on educating women about EBF for six months and proper supplementary feeding beyond six months with less expensive, culturally acceptable, and locally available food.

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