Breast feeding pattern in neonates.

The present study comprised 100 mothers of newborn babies with regard to their belief and practices about lactation. A vast majority (98.2%) of the mothers were breast feeding, 87.9% mothers used prelacteal feeds of one sort or the other. Only 0.5% breast fed their babies within 6 hours and nearly 50% started after 48 hours. Colostrum was discarded by 82.9% of mother and nearly 73% wanted to continue breast feeding beyond 1 year. The age of weaning preferred was after 1 year by 91%. Only 24.7% mothers had undergone antenatal check ups. Hence, much needs to be done with regards to proper antenatal care and advice to discourage wrong and harmful feeding practices.