Knowledge and practices regarding child rearing and its association with literacy among married women in a rural area of Tamil Nadu, India

Background: India contributes a large proportion to global under-fi ve child mortality. One of the determinants of child morbidity and mortality is the “child rearing practices.” Socio-economic environment, child rearing practices and nutritional status play a synergistic role. Materials and Methods: Information was collected by exit interviews from married women attending out-patient departments of three primary health centers. Data was collected during December, 2009 using pretested questionnaire Married women in reproductive age group with youngest child in the age group of 1-5 years were eligible for inclusion. To assess the child rearing knowledge and practices (CRKP), a composite score was calculated based on 10 variables and categorized into satisfactory and unsatisfactory. Results: A total of 100 eligible married women were included in the study. About half of the women were in the age group of 25-35 years, 80% belonged to social class V and VI majority (63%) were literate and 70% had ≥2 children. With the increase in literacy status, there was the increase in proportion of women who had satisfactory CRKP and decrease in proportion of women who had given pre-lacteal feed. Among women who had three children, 15 out of 39 (38%) had fully immunized their fi rst child as compared with 25 out of 39 (64%) for the second child and 38 out of 39 (97%) for the third child. Immunization coverage increased as the birth order increased. Conclusion: Mothers’ education has a signifi cant role in determining her child rearing practices, which in turn would lead better child survival.