KNOWLEDGE OF LACTATING MOTHERS ABOUT IMPORTANCE AND NECESSITY OF BREAST FEEDING IN INFANTS - ISFAHAN PROVINCE

Abstract

Introduction. In spite of high physiologic ability of lactation in mothers, most of them have not cooperation for breast feeding. Mothers' knowledge and attitude are important for lactation behavior. Although 99 percent of mothers are capable for breast feeding, but WHO's reports revealed that breast feeding is decreasing in low socioeconomic families. We decided to evaluate the knowledge of lactating mothers about the importance and necessity of breast feeding.
Methods. Based on a descriptive, cross sectional study, 2799 mothers with infants younger than 15 months were selected by a cluster sampling. The study was performed in urban and rural health centers of Isfahan province.
Findings. Nearly 80 percent of mothers did not know anything about the necessity of exclusive breast feeding during the first 4 months of life. Eighty five percent of mothers who worked out of home preferred formula feeding and 45 percent of mothers supposed that their milk has no good taste and is watery. More than half of mothers believed that antibiotic consumption, repregnancy and long time hospitalization are inhibitor factors for normal breast feeding. Almost 50 percent of mothers had no insight about the time of breast feeding after cesarean section delivery and the age of supplementary feeding. Knowledge about breast feeding was similar in urban and rural area. About 56 percent of mothers had not any training class and 32 percent had not been oriented in hospital about breast feeding.
Conclusion. It seems that knowledge of mothers about importance of breast milk depended on their previous experience especially previous training and cultural believing and this training isn't suitable for maintenance of breast feeding. Therefore, it is necessary to promote the knowledge of mothers especially by radio and television according to their culture and educational levels.