Awareness of Breastfeeding Laws and Provisions of Students and Employees of Institutions of Higher Learning in Georgia (original) (raw)
Related papers
Knowledge of breastfeeding among female college students: institution based cross-sectional study
INTRODUCTION Breast milk makes the world healthier, smarter, and more equal. The deaths of 823 000 children and 20,000 mothers each year could be averted through universal breastfeeding, along with economic savings of US$300 billion. Breastfeeding protects the baby against fewer infections, probable protection against overweight and diabetes, increases intelligence and protects mother against cancer. 1 Though the ideal time to educate the women about the merits of breast feeding is before pregnancy, few receive counselling during pregnancy and many after failed lactation. 2 This has led to an increased burden on the health care providers to restart breast feeding and manage an undernourished newborn. A stronger educational awareness program to prepare the young mothers for a successful lactation will reduce the cost on health care programs. 3 ABSTRACT Background: Understanding of young women's attitudes towards BF should be an early step in the design and implementation of BF interventions. There is a need for breastfeeding promotion strategies among female students to encourage them, in the future, to breastfeed and also champion the cause of breastfeeding as a child survival strategy. This study was conducted to assess knowledge of breastfeeding among female college students and to study factors associated with knowledge of breastfeeding. Methods: This was an institution based cross-sectional study conducted in August to October 2015. A validated structured questionnaire was used to assess knowledge of breastfeeding among female degree college students. Sample size derived was 580. Complete enumeration was done of all the students from the selected colleges. P-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Binary logistic regression analysis (enter method) was performed to find out the effect of co-variates on breastfeeding knowledge. Results: Total 630 students participated in the study. Approximately 66% of the students had adequate knowledge regarding breastfeeding. As per logistic regression analysis mother being a housewife and living in a nuclear family were predictors for higher breastfeeding knowledge among participants. Conclusion: There is a great scope for improving adolescents' knowledge of breastfeeding in colleges.
2024
Background: Breastfeeding is a basic human activity that is vital to a baby"s growth and development. Excellent breastfeeding advice from health professionals can influence a mother"s decision to initiate and maintain breastfeeding positively. The study was aimed at assessing the knowledge, attitudes, and intended practices toward exclusive breastfeeding among female undergraduates at the Mildmay Institute of Health Sciences. Methodology: A mixed method cross-sectional study was performed among165full time undergraduate female students at MIHS, using convenience sampling by a structured self-administered questionnaire composed of 16 items to evaluate the students' knowledge, 18 items to assess attitudes towards exclusive breastfeeding, 12 items to assess the intending practices and socio-demographics characteristics questions. Results: Overall, the majority (55%) of study participants had inadequate knowledge, 54.5%of the participants had positive attitudes, 44.4% were neutral and 0.6% of the respondents were less positive towards breastfeeding, a statistically significant association (p=0.019) was found between the knowledge score and the score of intending practices. Conclusions: The conducted study illustrated inadequate knowledge, positive attitudes, and inappropriate intending practices toward exclusive breastfeeding among full-time female undergraduate students at the Mildmay Institute of health sciences. Recommendations: Curricular changes aimed at promoting, supporting, protecting, and correcting the misconceptions about exclusive breastfeeding should be put in place across all levels of female undergraduates in health professions. Smart advocacy about exclusive breastfeeding should be carried out within the institute to improve the level of knowledge about exclusive breastfeeding.
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND DIAGNOSTIC RESEARCH, 2016
Introduction: Breastfeeding is important for promoting child's health. Since, breastfeeding decisions are made before pregnancy and are strongly influenced by women's knowledge and attitude, it is important to identify knowledge gaps in youth girls. Aim: To assess the knowledge, attitude and future intention regarding infant feeding among female college students in Puducherry, India. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was done among 307 college going female students. Their knowledge, attitude and future intention was assessed using structured questions and Likert's scale. Data were summarized as percentages with 95% confidence interval. Responses to Likert's scale were analyzed using consensus index. Results: Around 98% (95% CI: 96.5%, 99.6%) and 86.3% (95% CI: 82.5%, 90.2%) knew that breast milk and colostrum respectively is good for the child. However, students had poor knowledge about exclusive breastfeeding, the age of starting supplementation, recommended duration of breastfeeding. Noteworthy, 15% and 38% of them thought that breastfeeding spoils the mother's beauty and interferes with mother's employment respectively. Around 98% (95% CI: 97.0%, 100.0%) wanted to breastfeed their child in future. A high proportion of students, 20.5% (95% CI: 16.0%, 25.0%) wanted to give formula feed before 6 months. Knowledge and future intention to breastfeed was better among 'arts and science' students than engineering students. Conclusion: The knowledge and attitude of female college students on breastfeeding is good. Almost all students wanted to breastfeed their children in future. However, the study has identified knowledge gaps and misconceptions which need to be stressed during the health education activity to promote optimal breastfeeding practices.
International Journal of Health Sciences (IJHS), 2021
Background: To assess differences in perceived understanding of common misconceptions and misunderstandings about breastfeeding and breast milk use/safety among a sample of college students. Methods: A convenience sample of 776 students, mean age of 23.01(5.54) years, from one public university in the southern United States completed the 68-item online questionnaire that contained a breastfeeding knowledge/understanding scale created specifically for this study. Results: The sample had a mean general breastfeeding knowledge scale score of 175.58 (23.46) indicating a relatively low level of knowledge and understanding of breastfeeding and lactation. Students who were either older than 22 years of age, married, female, Caucasian, were not breastfed as children, or had previous experience with breastfeeding a child had significantly higher mean knowledge scores related to common breastfeeding and breast milk misconceptions. Conclusion: This sample of college students had a relatively low level of breastfeeding knowledge and understanding of common breastfeeding misconceptions. Traditional college-age undergraduates (18-21) who are more likely to be unmarried would benefit from having some exposure to education about breastfeeding and lactation. Young, influential groups of people who could perpetuate a strong, sustainable, and supportive culture around breastfeeding for future generations should be the focus of efforts to improve breastfeeding rates.
Breastfeeding awareness among college girls
Breastfeeding is an unequalled way of providing ideal food for the healthy growth and development of infants. It is also an integral part of the reproductive process with important implication for the health of the mothers. As a global public health recommendation, the infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six month of life to achieve optimum growth, development and health [1]. Breastfeeding has many advantages. The breast milk is free from contamination and adulteration. It is available at desired temperature and is easily digestible and suitable to the need of the infants. It is convenient especially during night. By virtue of its antiinfective properties and being free from contamination, the breastfed babies have a low incidence of infective diarrhoea, respiratory infections, acute otitis media and necrotizing enterocolitis [2]. There is reduced risk of eczema and milk allergy in breastfed babies. There is evidence to suggest that breastfed babies are less likely to develop obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and atherosclerosis in later life. Breastfed babies have better cognition and intelligent quotient score later in life [3,4]. The lactational amenorrhea often associated with breast feeding, partly helps in spacing the birth of babies [5]. It ensures better postpartum involution of the uterus and affords some ABSTRACT Breast milk is vital for the growth and development of children but due to various reasons it is not given. The knowledge and attitude of mothers play a significant role in initiation of this natural practice. The present study was conducted to assess the knowledge and attitude of college girls of Ludhiana, Punjab regarding breastfeeding,who are going to be the future mothers. A pre-tested structured multiple-choice questionnaire having items on different aspects of breastfeeding was used. The data from a sample of 100 college girls of Guru Nanak Girls College, Ludhiana Punjab was obtained. The knowledge of college girls regarding breastfeeding was average and 55 percent of the college girls had negative attitude towards breastfeeding. The type of course and source of information had significant impact on the knowledge and attitude of the college girls. Whereas, there was no statistically significant effect on knowledge and attitude of college girls according to age, type of family, place of residence, family income per month. It is thus concluded that the college girls had average knowledge and negative attitude which was influenced by type of course and source of information. Based on this study, it is recommended that all types of courses and sources should have special provision to impart knowledge regarding breastfeeding.
Indian Journal of Forensic and Community Medicine, 2023
Objective: To assess knowledge, perception, and intention regarding breastfeeding among medical students. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study assessed the knowledge, perception, and intentions of 198 third-year medical students at Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, regarding breastfeeding. Results: Indicated that 69.6% had average knowledge, with only 3% demonstrating good knowledge. The mean score was 6.39 ± 4.940. Gender and attendance of prior lectures did not significantly influence knowledge levels. The study explored participants' perceptions of breastfeeding policies and found no significant gender-based differences. Additionally, 55 students expressed intent to work in Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) in the future. While not statistically significant, their knowledge scores were higher. Conclusion: The study emphasizes the importance of enhancing breastfeeding education among medical students and highlights the potential role of future healthcare professionals in promoting optimal breastfeeding practices. Keywords: Breastfeeding, Medical students, Knowledge, Perception, Reproductive and child health (RCH).
Knowledge, attitude and intending practice of female undergraduates about breastfeeding
African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development
The recommendation by the World Health Organization (WHO) is that infants should be fed exclusively on breast milk for the first 6 months, but the rate of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) has been on the decline in Nigeria. The study determines knowledge, attitude and intending practice of unmarried female undergraduates about breastfeeding (BF). Two hundred females were selected using the simple random sampling procedure. Interview schedule was used to obtain information on socio- economic characteristics, knowledge, attitude and intending practices of EBF of Obafemi Awolowo University Ile Ife, Nigeria. Knowledge and attitudes on BF were determined using a three and five point Likert Scale, respectively. Data was described using percentages, frequency counts and regression. Sixty percent of the respondents were between the ages of 21 and 24years and more than half are four hundred level students (54.5%). Knowledge on the term EBF is misconstrued as BF for 12 months by 33% of the respo...
Knowledge and Attitude toward Breastfeeding among Nursing Students
Journal of Natural Sciences Research, 2015
Objectives: To evaluate breastfeeding knowledge and attitudes of nursing students while they were enrolled in the nursing college. Methods: A cross sectional design was used to collect data from a convenience sample of 113 nursing students. Data were collected using a pre-tested self administered questionnaire. Results: The majority of students were female (81.4%) and between the ages of 18-25 years (85%). Overall, 88.5% of the nursing students had adequate knowledge and positive attitude toward breastfeeding. Only 18.6% and 81.4% of male and female students respectively had a correct response to questions related to breastfeeding. This indicated a statistically significant difference by gender, p = .002. The demographic variables related to marital status, age and level of study were not statistically related to breastfeeding knowledge scores , p > .05. Conclusion: Gender is obviously important socio-demographic factor that influence knowledge towards breastfeeding. Therefore, i...
A Study of Factors affecting the Knowledge and Awareness about Effective Breastfeeding
MGM Journal of Medical Sciences, 2018
Aim: To study the knowledge and awareness about breast feeding in women attending a tertiary care medical center, and correlate it with sociodemographic factors. Materials and methods: A total of 331 participants were selected and interviewed with a prevalidated questionnaire. Their answers about essentiality and advantages of breastfeeding were evalu ated as "wrong," "don't know," and "correct." Spearman's correla tion coefficient graph was used to analyze the association of their answers with different sociodemographic factors. Results: Over 80% participants had correct knowledge about early initiation of breastfeeding within 1 hour, exclusive breast feeding for 6 months, and importance of colostrums in normally delivered babies; 58% showed lack of knowledge about hazards of prelacteals and initiation of breastfeeding after cesarean section. Advantages of breastfeeding for mothers were known to only 60 to 65% of participants. Our study did not establish any positive or negative correlation between age, parity, educa tion, address, place of delivery, and information providers with knowledge about breastfeeding. Conclusion: In this study, urban living, higher education, multi parity (i/v/o breastfeeding experience), and hospital delivery of women did not show positive correlation with higher degree of knowledge and awareness about breastfeeding, thus highlight ing the need for specifically designed and focused training for the antenatal and postnatal women as well as the society. Clinical significance: There is an urgent need for prompt and active action to be taken at health care system, community, and policy levels for strategic planning of different programs to improve effective breastfeeding rates. These plans should focus on clearing social myths and taboos and in accordance with local needs of the women.
Health promotion practice, 2021
The benefits of breastfeeding for mother and baby are strongly supported by research. However, lactating parents who return to school or work soon after delivery face many barriers to continued breastfeeding. This article presents a student-led initiative to support lactation at a large public university that emerged from advocacy efforts of student mothers of color. The socioecological model was used as a framework to understand and address the multifaceted influences on breastfeeding practices. Project activities included providing breastfeeding education to lactating parents and their partners, measuring availability and accessibility of lactation spaces, improving lactation spaces, connecting university stakeholders, and strengthening university lactation policies. The project achieved the following outcomes: formation of a stakeholder group with members across campus departments, improvement in accessibility and appropriateness of lactation spaces, provision of breastfeeding se...