Saima Sultana.
Knowledge Regarding Breast Feeding Practices among Nurses in Maternity Units of Health Care Facilities in Islamabad.
Ann Pak Inst Med Sci Jan ;8(4):249-51.

Objective: To assess the knowledge level of nurses working in maternity units regarding breast feeding practices in health care facilities. Study Design: A cross sectional survey Materials and Methods: A cross sectional survey of nurses in maternity units of public and private health care facilities in Islamabad was conducted on a self administered questionnaire. Nurses were included in this study from four different hospitals. Result: Total 150 questionnaire were filled by nurses from different hospitals who were selected on specified selection criteria. All the participants 150 (100%) were females, among them, 100 (66.7%) were from public sector hospital and 50 (33.3%) from private sector. Amongst all 148(98.7%) nurses responded that optimal time to initiate breast feeding is within 6 hrs of birth and 2 (1.3%) thought that it should be after 72 hours of birth. 143 (95.3%) nurses were of the view that Health professional should actively encourage all mothers in their practices to try breast feeding, 5 (3.3%) responded No and 2 (1.3%) participants did not know. 118 (78.7%) replied that Health professionals have little influence on women's decision to continue breast feeding, 29 (19.3%) were against this and 3 (2.0%) participants did not know. Conclusion: The overall knowledge of health professional was good. It is concluded that the mixed pattern is the commonest type of feeding. Most of the mothers and Health professionals are still unaware about benefits of breast feeding and we need to adopt more organized measures to promote breast feeding.

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