ABSTRACT
Background:Considering the poor practices of optimal breastfeeding, a cross-sectional study with the objective to ascertain the disparity in knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) pertaining to early initiation, exclusive and continued breastfeeding behaviours was conducted among the mothers of children below 3 years of age.Methods:400 mothers of children ≤6 months from 52 villages of Rajasthan were included in the analysis for EBF. The data collection was analysed using statistical software SPSS version 23.0. All characteristics were summarized descriptively. Chi-square (χ2) test was performed to study the association between two categorical variables. Three points liket scale was administered to assess the attitude of mothers.Results:72.8 % mothers initiated early breastfeeding, 22.5% continued breastfeeding, and exclusively breastfeeding was practiced by none. 34.3% mothers had knowledge on early initiation of breastfeeding, 34.6% on exclusive breastfeeding and 65.5% had knowledge on continued breastfeeding. 73.8% mothers had positive attitude towards early initiation of breastfeeding, 13.5 % on exclusive breastfeeding and 79.5% had positive attitude towards continued breastfeeding up to 2 years.Conclusions:Though the attitude and knowledge on breastfeeding is good yet exclusive breastfeeding practice was observed very poor. These findings indicate that despite of having good knowledge and a positive attitude towards breastfeeding, there are certain myths and social determinants which hinder optimal breastfeeding. Identification of such barriers will be extremely useful, since counselling and behaviour change strategies will focus and address them, resulting in the practice of good behaviours.