Formulation of Galactagogue Rich Recipes - Its Acceptability and Awareness Program to Pregnant and Lactating Women

Breastfeeding is a fundamental pillar of child nutrition, with important implications for the health welfare due to its impact on morbidity and mortality, especially among children under one year of age. The process of secretion and production of milk in alveolus of breast after the birth of child is called lactation. Therefore, many use galactagogues to increase the milk production. Galactagogue helps in increasing the prolactin hormone levels. The present study was aimed the with objective to formulate galactagogue rich recipes and to access the knowledge on galactagogue and create awareness to pregnant and lactating women using developed aids. The study was carried out on 25 lactating women using interview schedule to assess their nutritional status, knowledge of breastfeeding practices and awareness of galactagogues. Galactagogue rich recipes such as galacta paratha, galacta tea, galacta pancake and galacta omelette were organoleptically evaluated by the 25 lactating women. Among the four galactagogue rich recipes galacta paratha received highest score and hence variations are shown. The nutrient content of the formulated galacta paratha (100g) was found to be 221.82 kcal of energy, 9.08g of protein, 4.78g of fat, 2.69mg of iron, 65.85mg of Calcium, 77.23μg of vitamin A, 5.38g of fibre and 35.20g of carbohydrates which indicates that galacta paratha was highly nutritious compared to other galactagogue rich recipes. Nutrition education and awareness program were given to pregnant and lactating women in groups using pamphlets and a 5-day menu was designed especially for lactating women. This study concluded that majority 60% of selected lactating women were not aware of the term galactagogues and about 60% of the selected lactating women experienced that their feeding pattern increased much after following prescribed menu. About 60% of the mothers breastfed their infant directly, 20% of them feed with the help of pumped milk and 20 % of them breastfed both directly and by use of pumped milk.