A STUDY TO EVALUATE THE ASSOCIATION OF POST TEACHING KNOWLEDGE SCORES OF IMPORTANCE OFEARLY INITIATION OF BREAST FEEDING WITH SELECTED DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES AMONG PRIMIGRAVIDA MOTHERS AT SELECTED RURAL AREAS OF BANGALORE.

“Mothers are not dropped from heaven. They are born as undervalued, neglected girls and grow as exploited uneducated children. We must look at the suffering and disadvantages, would be mother has experienced. She must become self-confident and self-reliant and for that she needs to be educated and employed”. A report of Global strategy for infant and young child feeding, jointly developed by WHO& UNICEF (2000)says, “Malnutrition has been responsible directly or indirectly for 60%of the 10.9 million deaths annually, which are often associated with inappropriate feeding practices and occur during the first year of birth. Ingestion of unsafe water instead of breast milk contributes to about 1.5 million child deaths. AIM: the Association of post teaching knowledge scores of importance of early initiation of breast feeding with selected demographic variables SETTINGS AND DESIGN Pre-experimental one group pre-test post-test design.200 primi gravida mothers who met sampling criteria were selected by using non-probability convenience sampling for the presentstudy. The knowledge of primi gravida mothers were assessed using a structured knowledge questionnaire followed by a planned health education programme. Post-test performed on the second day using the same tool. The results were described by using descriptive and inferential statistics.