Perception towards breast feeding amongst working women teachers of a public school in Delhi.

A declining trend of breast feeding (BF) was noticed in the early 1970s, but a decade of intensive campaigning by national and international agencies for BF has reversed this. The objective of the present study was to assess the knowledge and attitude amongst teachers before launching an orientation course in maternal and child health care for them. A structured questionnaire was administered to 62 married women teachers of middle socioeconomic background and education. 98% of mothers knew that breast milk was the nutrition of choice up to 4-5 months of age, and 94% mentioned that BF should be started immediately after birth. 94% of subjects knew that colostrum should be given, 95% were aware that protective substances were present in breast milk. 61% were cognizant of the need to continue BF as long as possible. 92% of the subject knew about improved mother-infant bonding owing to BF. Only 60% knew that lactation provided complete protection against pregnancy during the first 4 months. 615 of the mothers deemed BF in public embarrassing. All subjects were aware that unhygienic bottle feeding caused diarrhea, whereas BF offered protection. Many of them felt that BF should be stopped when the mother had tuberculosis (16%), malaria (55%), and diarrhea (60%). 65% of mothers had misconceptions that diluted top milk should be given even after 4 months of age, while 35% were mistaken that commercial preparations of milk were more nutritious than breast milk. 76% had the erroneous knowledge that high consumption of almonds, cashew nuts and other dried fruits increased the volume of breast milk. 94% of the teachers knew that the child should get colostrum, and almost 37% felt that bottle feeding should be entirely avoided. These results point to the urgent need of starting nutrition education programs for working mothers.