Assessment of knowledge and practices about breastfeeding and weaning among working and non-working mothers

Objective: to assess the knowledge and practices of working and non-working mothers regarding breastfeeding and weaning. methods: this cross-sectional study involving working and non-working mothers was conducted from may 2015 to may 2016 at different hospitals of karachi. data was collected from women who had at least one child aged below 5 years and who had previously breastfed their child. non-probability quota sampling technique was used. spss 20 was used for data analysis. results: of the 414 participants,207(50%) were non-working while 207(50%) were working mothers. the overall mean age was 29.6±6.3 years. moreover,277(66.9%) mothers breastfed their youngest child and a significant difference was observed among the breastfeeding practices of working and non-working mothers (p<0.05). bottle-feeding was adopted by 320(77.9%) mothers as an alternative method although 259(62.6%) mothers were aware about the harmful effects of bottle-feeding. home-made products were used for weaning by 389(94%) mothers. conclusion: knowledge and practices regarding breastfeeding showed significant difference in most of the aspects between working and non-working mothers. as for weaning,both groups had the same knowledge and practices. © 2017,pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.