The Determination of Mothers' Knowledge Level About Mother's Milk in Infants and Babies

Abstract

A mother's milk is the ideal way of feeding for a baby regarding to physically, mentally and pschologically. As the knowledge level of a mother about the benefits of mother's milk and suckling, the number of babies fed with mother's milk is reducing in following months after birth. The deficiency in growing and improving is seen in infants and babies who are not fed with mother's milk and in following years health and nutrition problems appear. In such increasing cases the importance of mother's milk and colostrum, the suckling time and period and stoping suckling time should be taught to the mothers. This study is carried out to determine the knowledge level of mothers about mother's milk and suckling. The study is carried out in "Amasya Women and Childen Hospital". The sample of the study consist of 110 mothers who have babies between the age of 0-1 between the dates 19th-30 th, December 2005. The date was obtained through a questionaire consisting of 42 questions to determine the knowledge level of mothers on mother's milk. The questions were prepared by surveying the related literature. The data is evaluated by SPSS for Windows Statistical Programme and the number percentage distributions are obtained. When the data evaluated generally, it is seen that mothers feed their babies with mother's milk. However 8.2 % of them did not give colostrum, 43.6 % of them didn't have any knowledge about mother's milk and 5.5 % of them started suckling 24 hours after birth. At the end of the study it is advised to educate mothers regularly on the importance of colostrum, mother's milk and the benefits of early suckling by nurses.