A Descriptive Study to Assess the Knowledge and Attitude of Third Trimester Antenatal Mothers Regarding Colostrum Feeding

Many cultural belief and practices all prevalent in postpartum period that some mothers may not feed the baby immediately after birth. They neglect "COLOSTRUM" instead of it they will give sugar water, plain water, honey etc, all these practices lead to suppression of lactation and the newborn lacks immunity. Colostrum Feeding is best for the baby .It plays an important role in preventing the infant morbidity and mortality. Antenatal Mothers should have knowledge and positive attitude regarding Colostrum feeding. The present study was aimed to assess the knowledge and attitude of third trimester antenatal mothers regarding colostrum feeding in a selected community area at Bangalore with a view to develop an information booklet.

The objectives of the study were: 1) To assess the level of knowledge of third trimester antenatal mothers regarding colostrum feeding.2) To assess the attitude of third trimester antenatal mothers regarding colostrum feeding.3) To find an correlation between knowledge and attitude regarding colostrum feeding.4) To find an association between knowledge score with their selected demographic Variables.5) To find an association between attitude with their selected demographic variables.

Methods: The purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample for the study .Data was collected by using structured interview schedule. The tool consisted of 3 parts. First part consists of demographic data of the samples, second part consists of structured knowledge questionnaires related to the knowledge of third trimester antenatal mothers regarding colostrum feeding and third part consists of attitude scale related to the attitude of third trimester antenatal mother. The data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results: The analysis shows that among third trimester antenatal mother's participants majority of them (61%) were between 19-25 years. With regard to the religion participant, majority of them (67%) were Hindus. With regard to Educational Status of the participant, majority of them (35%) had No formal education. With regard to Occupation of the participant, majority of them (68%) were Home maker. With regard to type of family of participant, majority of them (83%) belonged to Nuclear family. With regard to Monthly income of participant, majority of them (46%) have income Rs.7001 and above. With regard to Gravida of participant, majority of them (73%) belong Primigravida. With regard to Number of children in family of participant, majority of them (63%) had none of children. With regard to source of information of participant majority of them (71%) were getting information from family members. The results of the study shows that, the overall The mean knowledge score of third trimester antenatal mothers is 12.17with mean percentage 40.57and standard deviation 4.07 and the mean attitude score of third trimester antenatal mothers is 29.7 with mean percentage 59.4 and standard deviation 5.02.The ' r' value was computed and it was found to be significant [r=0.23; P<0.001]. It was assessed at 0.05% level of significance. Hence, the null Hypothesis (H₀) was rejected. The study concluded that the knowledge of third trimester antenatal mothers is inadequate and the attitude of third trimester antenatal mothers towards colostrum feeding is negative, whereby the third trimester antenatal mothers could be encouraged and motivated to enhance their knowledge and positive attitude towards colostrum feeding.