A Comparative Study of the Breast Feeding Practice of Mothers between Rural Area and Urban Area in Bangladesh

Abstract

The exclusive breast feeding is ideal nutrition and sufficient to support optimal growth and development for approximately the first 6 months of life and the later age breastfeeding provides complete nutrition for infants and children. But it is not properly maintained in Bangladesh with limited resources, such as Sirajganj, where poverty and illiteracy are prevalent. Poor nutritional status during childhood can have long-lasting consequences in adulthood, including health, mortality, and human capital. It was a community based cross sectional comparative study which was conducted on 500 hundred mothers and their 500 hundred children in which 250 mothers and 250 children from each of Sirajganj and Dhaka City were selected. The target respondents were selecting randomly. χ 2 test, and  Pearson’s correlation was performed as P<0.05 level of significance. The study found that there was a higher number of female children and higher birth frequencies in Sirajganj and Dhaka City. The study assessed mothers' breast feeding practices, including knowledge of colostrums, first baby food feeding, initiation, and duration of exclusive breastfeeding. Sirajganj city mothers received more breastfeeding attention than Dhaka City mothers, with findings decreasing with child's birth order. Breast feeding privileges in Sirajganj City increase as mothers' education levels rise from low school to a bachelor's degree or higher. Breast-feeding prevalence in infants up to 12 months is influenced by factors like sex, maternal age, birth order, education, employment status, and mother's poverty income ratio. The sickness of children is also influence to stop breast-feeding. The child birth weight was found to comparatively lower in the Sirajganj city than Dhaka City.