Abstract:

The objective of the study was to assess the breastfeeding practices in rural and urban nursing mothers and to evaluate the determinants of selected key indicators of breastfeeding practices in both rural and urban setting in Lahore, Pakistan. There was a need to assess the breastfeeding practices, so that the appropriate measure could be taken in order to lessen the number of the children experiencing these illnesses. A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out on 370 mothers having up to one year old children Frequencies and percentages were computed. Exclusive breastfeeding was reported by about 40.8% of the mothers. Mostly of them were self motivated. Most of them started breastfeeding on first day. Majority of the females (59.8%) were not giving breastfeeding, mostly of them belong to urban areas and were working females. As per the analysis, it has been found that 98.6% females were from their professional and marital life. Large number of females, living in the urban areas, working for 6-8 hours a day cannot manage breastfeeding along with the work. There is a strong need for the development of policies by the government agencies to allow mothers with infants avail maternity leaves in order to provide exclusive breastfeeding to the children. Since some private organizations do not allow for long maternity leaves. Awareness campaigns should be initiated to provide necessary information about the advantages of breastfeeding and effects of not breastfeeding to the children.

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