Breast feeding practices and associated variables in Chandigarh Tricity, India

Exclusive breastfeeding is a well-established and recommended intervention for the improvement of child nutrition but still there exist many discrepancies. The present study was conducted with objectives to identify prevalence of breastfeeding practices and to study various socio-demographic factors influencing breastfeeding. A sample of 580 mothers accompanying under- five children were selected randomly at health centres in the Tricity of Chandigarh, India between April 2012 and September 2013.Stratified multistage sampling technique was used to select six community health centres, four primary health centres and eight sub centres from Chandigarh Tricity namely Chandigarh, Panchkula, and Mohali. Discrete data was analyzed using frequency, percentages and Chi- square test. Logistic regression was done to find the risk factors associated with breastfeeding. It was found that prevalence of exclusive breast feeding was 61.0%.Maximum children (72.6%) received breastfeed within one hour of birth. Among participants of low socio-economic status, exclusive breast feeding was found to be significantly higher (p=0.00). Exclusive breast feeding was significantly more among children those delivered in institutions as compared to home delivery (84.2%vs.15.8%, p=0.04). Practice of giving pre-lacteal feed was found among 35.3% participants. It was concluded that although exclusive breast feeding was found to be high in tricity but still pre-lacteal feeding practices were prevalent in society. Hence, focus on factors associated with exclusive breast feeding needs to be addressed for promotion of exclusive breast feeding and avoidance of pre-lacteal feed.