title: Awareness and attitude regarding breastfeeding and immunization practices among primigravida attending a tertiary care hospital in southern India.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Infant mortality rate (IMR) is considered as one of the most sensitive indicators of health status of a community. Infant mortality figures in India are very high and the two important causes which contributes maximum to the IMR is inadequate breastfeeding and immunization. The major cause of death among under five children in India is neonatal sepsis, diarrhea and pneumonia and breast milk is protective against all the three diseases. Immunization along with breastfeeding reduces a significant number of infant and maternal mortality. Disease like neonatal tetanus is rampant in our country and it can be prevented by vaccination of the women during pregnancy. This study tries to find out the awareness and attitude among the primigravida females regarding breastfeeding and immunization.
  
  
  METHODS
  This facility based cross-sectional study was conducted among 186 primigravida who came to the hospital for delivery and antenatal check-up during March 2014 in three associated teaching hospitals of Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, which is situated in coastal South India. Approval was obtained from the Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) of KMC (Manipal University), Mangalore, India. A pre tested, semi structured questionnaire was used as the data collecting tool.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Majority (n=163, 87.6%) were Hindus followed by Muslims (n=16, 3.2%). Nearly half of the participants (n=92, 49.5%) were in the 21-25 y age group, 54.8% participants were not aware of correct position of baby during feeding and 10.8% (n=20) believed that immunization should be stopped if it showed side effects.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Breastfeeding and Immunization is an effective way of reducing child and maternal mortality. The results from our study showed that many participants had lacunae in knowledge and attitude and adequate health education should be given to the pregnant women.
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Manipal University) , Mangalore, India .
authors.forename: Avinash
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Professor and HOD, Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Manipal University) , Mangalore, India .
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Unnikrishnan
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Manipal University) , Mangalore, India .
authors.forename: Rekha
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: T
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Manipal University) , Mangalore, India .
authors.forename: Prasanna
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mithra
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Manipal University) , Mangalore, India .
authors.forename: Nithin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Manipal University) , Mangalore, India .
authors.forename: Vaman
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kulkarni
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Manipal University) , Mangalore, India .
authors.forename: Ramesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Holla
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Manipal University) , Mangalore, India .
authors.forename: Darshan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: B B
keywords: Colostrum; Immunization; Maternal and neonatal tetanus; Vaccine preventable disease; Weaning