Infant Feeding Practices of Multiparous Women Attending the Antenatal Clinic in a Tertiary Care Hospital

A cross-sectional study was carried out on multiparous women attending the ante natal clinic of a tertiary care hospital in the government setting. Information was primarily gathered regarding infant feeding practices in their previous childbirth. More than 2/3rd of the participants were urban dwellers with 62% of them being housewives. 23.9% had exclusively breast fed their babies during first six months.19.7% had started breastfeeding with in first hour of birth .Most of the mothers knew the benefits of breastfeeding but only 39% and 34% had correct knowledge regarding initiation of breast feeding and dangers of prelacteal feeds respectively. Only 5.14% of mothers knew about birth spacing benefits of breastfeeding. Place of residence of studied women was found to be significantly associated with introduction of prelacteal feeds and type of feeding during first six months. Although majority of women breastfeed their babies certain harmful practices still persist in our community. The situation can be improved by training of grass root health workers on lactation management and making these services universally available along with intensive IEC efforts to generate demand for these services.