Mothers' awareness on benefits of breast-milk and cultural taboos during lactation

205 newly delivered mothers at the two Local Maternity Centres in Ile-Ife, Oyo State, Nigeria were contacted after delivery to assess their levels of awareness on importance of breast-milk to infants, things forbidden during lactation and sources of information on breastfeeding were collected individually by interview schedule. The levels of awareness on importance of breast-milk to infants by ages and parity of mothers were significant at P < 0.01 and P < 0.05 respectively. However, number of years in school by levels of awareness were found to be insignificant P > 0.05. 88.3% of the mothers regarded sexual intercourse during the entire lactation as taboo primarily for the fear the infant might suck fathers' sperm in the breast which might eventually cause diarrhoea. 70.7% of the mothers credited their major source of advice on breastfeeding to the nurses. The implications of these findings for health workers in developing countries are stressed.