ASSESS THE KNOWLEDGE AND PERCEPTION ON HUMAN BREAST MILK BANK AMONG POSTNATAL MOTHERS

Background:Human breast milk is considered as the best source of all nutrients, beyond that it the only living food source for infants especially during the first six months of their life. WHOrecommendstheexclusivebreastfeedingtill6monthsoflifeforallinfantsandthensupplemented breastfeedingisrecommended untilat least two yearsofageanditisrecognized asgloballyhighlymore Nutritious. According to the joint statement given by the World Health Organization and United Nations InternationalChildrensEmergency Fund(UNICEF)in1980. Thebestandessentialfoodforany baby whoseown mother'smilkisnotavailable isthebreastmilkfromanotherdonatinghealthymother. Hence this study focuseson identifying andassessing theknowledgeand perceptionamong postnatalmothers aboutHumanBreastMilk Bank establishmentand itsdonation.Itaimsondescribing behaviors,beliefs,andfeelingsbehindHumanMilk Bank anditsdonation by identifying donors individual,socialandenvironmentalfeatures thatcouldaffectthedonationofhumanmilk.Thefindings willhelp todevelophealtheducation toolsto promotehumanmilkdonation by identifying the factors that hinders the human milk donation and rectifying it accordingly. Objectives: 1. Toassessknowledgeand perception on Human MilkBankamongpostnatal mothers. 2. Toidentifytheassociationofknowledgeand perception withselected demographic variables. Methods: The design of the study is cross sectional. Theparticipantswho met the inclusion criteriawereselected byconvenientsamplingtechnique. The total participants included in this study were 100. the data was collected by using structured questionnaire. Statistical methods like frequency and percentage, chi-square test have been used and All statistical analysis has been carried out at 5% level of significant and P<0.05 has considered as significant. Results:The study concludedthatonly 19%ofthepostnatalmothers hadadequate knowledgeandinregardto perception70%ofpostnatalmothershadfavorable perception. Therewasno significantassociation ofknowledgeandperception with any of thesocio- demographic variables. Conclusion:The above results stress the importance of organizing health education topostnatalmothers.