International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences | June 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Page 2086 International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences Goswami S et al. Int J Res Med Sci. 2018 Jun;6(6):2086-2091 www.msjonline.org pISSN 2320-6071 | eISSN 2320-6012 Original Research Article Breastfeeding counselling and support: is it adequate? a descriptive study from Rohtak, India Shweta Goswami 1 *, Pardeep Khanna 2 , Ramesh Verma 2 , Vinod Chayal 2 , Varun Arora 2 INTRODUCTION Breastfeeding is an important aspect of care for a mother and her infant. India is supposed to be a “breastfeeding nation” but breastfeeding rates in the country do not support this claim. 1 The promotion and support of breastfeeding is a global priority and an important child- survival intervention and the World Health Organization advocates early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding for six months. 2 According to NFHS-4, early initiation of breastfeeding rate is 42.8% and exclusive breastfeeding rate is 52.1%. 3 Breastfeeding rates can be improved if the woman is informed antenatally about the benefits of breastfeeding and prepared mentally with lactation support and encouragement during postnatal period for early initiation as well as exclusive breastfeeding. In India, the health care provider during the antenatal visits is usually an obstetrician or a multipurpose health worker. Health workers also visit homes in their allotted areas and provide basic health services, health education regarding nutrition, motivation of pregnant women to come to the health centres for regular check-ups and for institutional delivery, support and encouragement for breastfeeding and many more. AWWs and ASHAs are supposed to help the health workers for the same. Health 1 Department of Community Medicine, ESI MC and Hospital, Joka, Kolkata, West Bengal, India 2 Department of Community Medicine, Pt. B. D. Sharma PGIMS, Rohtak, Haryana, India Received: 31 March 2018 Accepted: 27 April 2018 *Correspondence: Dr. Shweta Goswami, E-mail: doc.shweta12@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. ABSTRACT Background: Antenatal breastfeeding education and motivation along with postnatal encouragement and lactation support are likely to improve rates of early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding. This study was done to know whether antenatal and postnatal visits were utilized for promotion of optimum breastfeeding in addition to the routine obstetric services. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional type of community based epidemiological study was conducted in rural and urban field practice area attached to Department of Community Medicine, Pt. B. D. Sharma PGIMS, Rohtak. A total of 500 mothers were studied. A pre-tested semi-structured interview schedule was used for interviewing the study subjects and house to house visits were carried out to collect the information. Results: Health functionaries were the source of information in 49.6% mothers in urban area as compared to only 29.2% in rural areas. Breastfeeding related information was better in the mothers counseled by health functionaries than not counseled group. Conclusions: Health functionaries should be instructed to inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding during antenatal as well as postnatal visits. Existing breastfeeding education and postnatal support is not adequate in the population studied and needs to be strengthened. Keywords: Antenatal visits, Breastfeeding education, Exclusive breastfeeding, Early initiation of breastfeeding, Postnatal visits DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2320-6012.ijrms20182294