Author(s)

Rifat Aisha¹, Fakhar Batool¹, Saema Sultana²

¹College of Nursing, AFPGMI, RWP.
²College of Nursing, PIMS, Islamabad, Pakistan.

Background: It is well known that colostrum is important for promoting health, growth and development of the newborn, and it also helps to prevent against the infections. Breast feeding is a common practice in Pakistan but the importance of colostrums feeding is still poorly understood due to cultural variations. Objectives: The objectives are to assess the knowledge about the importance of colostrums feeding and to promote the practice of colostrums feeding in pregnant women. Methods: Data collection was done through semi-structured questionnaire regarding colostrum feeding among pregnant women. Gynaecology and Obstetrics Outpatient Department (OPD) and Antenatal Ward of Military Hospital Rawalpindi were selected for study purpose. Results: This study showed that 65% of women heard about colostrums from various sources like media, family and friends, and 35% heard from the health professional during antenatal visits. Only 6% of women knew that it is nutritious milk for the new born. Only women (9%) were aware about its protective effects and had knowledge that it helps to improve the growth of the babies and fight against infections. 35% of women perceived that there is something harmful which is not good for the newborn while 25% of women asked that this is the milk to be fed to baby and 15% of women asked this the milk to be discarded before feeding. There were still many women (39%) who lacked knowledge about colostrum, only 14% of the women in this study knew that the appropriate time for feeding colostrum is immediately after birth (1/2-1hour), whereas 86% of women starts feeding after 6 - 24 hrs. Majority of them who came from the rural areas were uneducated. Conclusion: Many women were aware about the importance of colostrum but the data still indicate that further efforts are required to improve the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of colostrums feeding.

Knowledge, Attitude, Practices and Colostrum

Aisha, R. , Batool, F. and Sultana, S. (2016) Knowledge, Attitude and Practices about Colostrum Feeding among Pregnant Women in Military Hospital Rawalpindi of Pakistan. Open Journal of Nursing, 6, 309-313. doi: 10.4236/ojn.2016.64032.