KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE TOWARDS BREAST CARE AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN WHO COME FOR ANC FOLLOW UP AT SPHMMC

Abstract

Abstract Background: This study is on the knowledge, attitude and practice of breast care in pregnant women at the SPHMMC department of obstetrics and gynecology regular OPD. It is intended to help us determine how many of the women have knowledge about it, how they feel about it and how many of them practice it. See where the problem is and work on it for the better health of mothers and neonates. Methods: A questionnaire was used to collect data from the pregnant women. It had different portions about knowledge, attitude and practice. It was drawn in English language. It was filled by pregnant women who came to SPHMMC OBGYN regular OPD. They were selected randomly. Data was collected from March to August 2017. Descriptive statistics was employed to describe the study participants. Chi-square test was used to test association between variables. Results: 80.3% of the antenatal mothers have never heard about the complications of lack of breast care in pregnancy. The mean knowledge score of respondents were found to be 3 and 78.5% of them have inadequate knowledge on breast care during pregnancy. 53.3% of the antenatal women believe breast care during pregnancy important. 89.7% of them believe that breast problems in perinatal period can be prevented by breast care in pregnancy. The mean attitude score of the respondents were found to be 2. 90.0% of the respondents have a positive attitude score. Only 10.3% of the antenatal women practice breast care in pregnancy. 80.0% of the women who practice breast care do it 2-3 times monthly. Of those antenatal mothers who do not practice breast care, 94.5% stated that they do not know about breast care. All of the antenatal women who practice breast care in pregnancy have poor practice score. Conclusion: This study showed that significant number of pregnant women who had ANC follow up at SPHMMC have inadequate knowledge, good attitude and poor practice on breast care during pregnancy. Therefore, this can be solved by including breast care and practice methods in teachings to all pregnant women. Health care professionals better also include breast examinations on routine ANC follow up visits. Educate mothers to identify breast infections and nipple problems early and advise them to seek medical attention early. Key words; antenatal mothers, breast problems, lactation, puerperium