‘‘Exclusive Breast Feeding Practice And Factors Influencing This- A Systematic Review ”

Abstract

In India, exclusive breastfeeding increased from 46.4% in 2006 to 54.9% in 2016. Early initiation of breastfeeding almost doubled from 23.4% to 41.6% during the same period. In 2018, only 44.6% of mothers initiated breastfeeding within 1 hour of birth. More than half (64.9%) of babies are exclusively breastfed during the first 6 months, and only 50.5% of babies between 6 and 8 months are given complementary feeding. By 2025, India wants to improve the percentage of infants who start breastfeeding at an early age to 90%. One such intervention that has been suggested in light of the benefits of lowering the risks of morbidity and mortality in a baby's first six months of life is exclusive breastfeeding for the first few months of life. The majority of women in royal households in India were unwilling to feed their infants, so instead of depending on cow or buffalo milk, they would send in wet nurses to take care of the task. Later half of (50 %) of 20th century was marked by an extend towards universal breast feeding polices, Hospitals were readjusting the prenatal care to support and enhance breast feeding. Therefore breast feeding help to brings the mother’s body back to its earlier position. The negative effects of artificial nutrition and bottle feeding had raised awareness among women of the superiority of breast milk. The message has been constantly spread in the latter 20th century by committed members of the healthcare system. Despite the fact that breast milk is the best, many infants are unable to consume it. Expressed breast milk was recommended as a replacement for breast milk. This involves the storage of milk for longer time and making it more widely acceptable and usable. Doctors and nurses became more concerned in developing this concept and human milk bank was established in India. Breastfeeding is the common problem that working mothers face every day. Feeding is not be possible for the working mothers during their working hours. Breastfeeding is not a problem for the mothers whose workplace is near their homes. They can get back home in between and feed their baby. But in case of mothers who work at far off places, they go for formula feeding when they are not at home. But studies have suggested that formula feeds are not good for the baby in the long run. Most of the doctors do not recommend formula as they lack all the immunological back up which is generally present in the breast milk.