SCHOOL HEALTH Attitudes and Knowledge of SecondarySchool Girls Concerning Breast Feeding

A 20-item questionnaire on breast feeding was completed by 242 high school girls ranging in age from 15 to 18 years old. Many girls had significant appre-hensions concerning breast feeding, including deleterious influences on the mother and ignorance of the benefits for the infant. Most stated that they would be interested in learning about breast feeding during school health lessons. Offering information to teenagers and correcting their apprehensions might help create sounder knowledge upon which mature motivation can later be formulated.!) the multiple and significantLJESPITE advantages of breast feeding (BF), many infants receive 4ittli ~ or no breast milk. This decline in breast feeding in most countries has a &dquo;’snowball effect.’’As breast feeding becomes less acceptable as the obvious method of feeding by mothers, more girls-grow up without seeing or hearing much about successful breastfeeding.1 The decline in breast feeding has been noted in Israel, and a study in Ashkelon showed that about half of the mothers discontinued breast feeding within two weeks of delivery. 2 The present investigation attempted to study what a teenage cohort had learned about breast feeding as they neared the end of adolescence and schooling and approached &dquo;; compulsory army enlistment, breaking with.the~~home~.CQVtronment’Pupils, of,the Haifa.. ’ W120 secondary.trade school completed a questionnaire on aspects of breast feeding: /.