Counseling of nursing mothers! How effective it is - For improving nutrition of neonates & infants
Abstract
Introduction: Optimal & appropriate infant & child feeding is one of the essentials to prevent morbidity & mortality in neonates & infants. The knowledge, practice & skills of WHAT & HOW of feeding must be known to every nursing mother. Counseling of mothers is one of the cost-effective approaches which can bring about a positive change in attitudes & skills to improve nutrition of infants & children.
Aims & Objectives: 1) Assess the knowledge & attitude of nursing mothers regarding breast-feeding. 2) Observe breast-feeding skills. 3) Counseling & post counseling assessment.
Material & Methods: Knowledge was assessed by questionnaire method of pretested proforma, Skill by observation of breastfeeding according to B-R-E-A-S-T proforma. One to one & group counseling & post-counseling assessment of mothers was done. Data was subjected to statistical analysis by SPSS 12 version & McNemar test.
Results: A total of 287 nursing mothers were studied, majority (94.4%) between 20- 30 yrs of age, 92% Hindu, 63.8% from low socio-economic status,53.7% illiterate,73.9% non-working, 63% from joint family& only 16.7% received information on feeding from health-professionals.
Knowledge: 23% of mothers gave correct answers to all questions related to breast-feeding. The average score of knowledge before counseling was 3.06 which increased to 9.87 post-counseling (p-value<0.01).
Practice: The practice was poorer than knowledge; only 21.4% were practicing breast-feeding appropriately. Pre-counseling score 3.85 which increased to 8.41 post-counseling (p-value<0.00 paired t-test).
Skills: Pre-counseling score of 0.14 increased to 2.98 after counseling which was statistically highly significant (p-value<0.00).
Conclusion: Inappropriate knowledge, practices & incorrect skills on breast-feeding is still prevalent amongst mothers in general & particularly in this area of Madhya-Pradesh. Repeated & effective counseling appears to be only answer to improve infant-feeding.
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