title: Breastfeeding practices among mothers in an urban polyclinic.
abstract: A cross sectional descriptive study on breast feeding practices in an urban clinic was conducted among 136 mothers aged between 21-49 years who were interviewed using a questionnaire. Malays constituted 61% of the respondents, Chinese 22.8% and Indians 16.2%. Mojority of these were working mothers and although the initiation of breastfeeding was high (99.3%), exclusive breastfeeding was only 12.5%. A large proportion (33.8%) dtopped prior to 3 months. Majority of the Chinese mothers (61.3%) stipped before 3 months as compared to the Indian (40.9%) and Malay (21.7%) mothers (p<0.001). Mean age of introducing complementary foods at 3 months is below the accepted age of 4 to 6 months for weaning. Ever-breast feeding rate is high in this urban setting but more efforts are needed to effect a higher rate of exclusive breastfeeding and longer duration of breastfeeding.
authors: University Malaya, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors: C K
authors: CK
authors: Siah H Yadav
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Yadav
mesh_terms: D001940:Breast; D001942:Breast Feeding; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009035:Mothers; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires