International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | November 2019 | Vol 6 | Issue 11 Page 5001 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Periyasamy AG et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2019 Nov;6(11):5001-5005 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Short Communication Empower parents, enable breastfeeding: a behavioral change communication exercise conducted at a community health centre of Haryana Aravind Gandhi Periyasamy 1 *, Nairita Dalui 1 , Arun K. Aggarwal 1 , Sanjeev Goyal 2 , Rupa Jain 3 INTRODUCTION Breast milk or mothers’ milk is the first source of nutrition a child receives and the defense it mounts against the disease causing organisms. It is a natural secretion and the most appropriate food for a child below 6 months of age. It provides all the nutrition required by a child in adequate quantities, reduces the Infant mortality by 13%. 1 It helps in proper weight gain of the baby and contains antibodies against infectious organism. Breastfeeding increases the chances of survival of less than 6 months babies by 6 times. 2 Docosahexaenoic acid (DOHA) present in the mother’s milk improves the IQ of the children, by promoting brain development. In addition to the above benefits for children, breastfeeding also protects the mothers against the chances of getting pregnant immediately after the delivery. Breastfeeding also reduces incidence of depression in mothers and improves the attachment between mother and child. Considering all the above, it is vital to initiate the breastfeeding within 1 hour of child birth, followed by exclusively breastfeeding the child till 6 months of age. It is also essential to feed breast milk along with other complimentary food, from 6 months to 2 years of age. 3 ABSTRACT In India, only 41.6% of the children are breastfed within 1 hour and 54.9% of the children are exclusively breastfed till 6 months. In order to promote breastfeeding, the first week of August is being observed as World Breastfeeding week. We organized a brainstorming session followed by an Interactive, audio-visual health education event on breastfeeding for the pregnant women and their household members at a Community Health Centre (CHC) in Haryana, during that week. A behavior change communication (BCC) session was held on 1st August 2019 at the Antenatal clinic of the CHC. Target population was the pregnant, lactating mothers and their household members. Needs assessment was done to assess their current knowledge, attitude and needs about the breastfeeding and breast milk, by interacting with them and posing questions. Based on the above needs assessment exercise, we delivered a health education session. The household members were enlightened about their role in breastfeeding. The behavior change communication exercise, tailored to local population and conducted by us would have improved the knowledge, attitude of the pregnant women and their family members towards breastfeeding, and in turn will improve the practice in near future. The exercise is replicable in other settings, by tailoring it according to the local needs. Keywords: Breastfeeding week, Breast milk, Good feeding practices, Behavior change communication 1 Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Chandigarh, India 2 CHC Raipur Rani, Panchkula, Haryana, India 3 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, CHC Raipur Rani, Panchkula, Haryana, India Received: 14 September 2019 Accepted: 18 October 2019 *Correspondence: Dr. Aravind Gandhi Periyasamy, E-mail: aravindsocialdoc@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20195095