Trends in Exclusive Breastfeeding Practices and Factors Affecting Mothers in Suburbs of Lahore

Introduction: Breast feeding has no match as a nutritional resource during the first six months for an infant, necessary for the health of both mother and infant. In past, Pakistan had worst breast feeding rates and despite efforts to promote breast feeding, situation is not satisfactory. Aims & Objectives: Our aim was to determine the frequency of mothers having exclusive breast feeding practices and finding various factors which may affect trends of exclusive breast feeding practices, in rural areas of Lahore. Place and duration of study: This study was done during May 2018 to October 2018 at Chaudhary Muhammad Akram Teaching Hospital. Material & Methods: In this cross sectional study, 254 mothers were interviewed directly and predesigned questionnaire was filled, through non probability consecutive sampling. Data was analyzed using SPSS 20. Post stratification chi square test was applied. Results: Only 34.3 percent mothers were found to practice exclusive breast feed till 6 months of infant age, 93 percent mothers were of age<35 years, mean age 26.6 years and SD±4.9. Only 3.5% initiate breast feeding within an hour of birth. Chi square test revealed association between exclusive breast feed with insufficient breast milk, initiation time of breast feed and early cessation of breast feed (p<0.05). Conclusion: Declining rates of breast feeding creates an alarming situation and suggests to make more aggressive efforts for promotion of breast feeding the infants. Key words: breast feed, insufficient feed, prlecteal feed