North Bengal Anthropologist, Vol. 04
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://ir.nbu.ac.in/handle/123456789/5293
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Item Open Access Breastfeeding Practices in Tribal and Caste Population of West Bengal: A Comparative Study(University of North Bengal, 2016) Mitra, Shreyosi; Ray, SubhaBreastfeeding has typically been studied as a discrete behaviour predicted by biological and social-cultural factors. The objectives of this study were to investigate into the pattern of and understand the knowledge and attitude of breastfeeding practices among the lactating mothers belonging to Bengali Hindu caste (BHC) and tribal groups. A total number of 167 lactating mothers were selected from Bengali Hindu caste population residing in the rural (100) and urban(40) areas of South and North 24 Parganas districts and from the tribal groups residing in rural areas (27) of Purulia district West Bengal. The selection of the study areas and of the participants was done on the basis of operational convenience. Data types include the time of initiation and duration of breastfeeding, the practice of exclusive breastfeeding, feeding colostrums and the knowledge and attitude of the mothers towards breastfeeding. Data on socio-economic information of the participants were taken as additional variable. Data were collected using semi-structured questionnaire. Trend in the results indicate that the practice of exclusive breastfeeding was lower in the Bengali Hindu caste population compared to the tribal population; feeding of colostrums is very common to the tribal mothers but not for their Bengali Hindu caste counterparts. Although the participants from both tribal and Bengali Hindu caste population were aware about the beneficial effect of breastfeeding, yet their attitude towards this behaviour varied widely.Item Open Access Menstrual Characteristics of Young Adults(University of North Bengal, 2016) Mukherjee, Ipsita; Ghosh, Jyoti RatanMenstrual health plays a key role inwomen’s sexual and reproductive life. Thepurpose of this study is to understand the age atmenarche and menstrual characteristics of young adults in a rural area of West Bengal.The present cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted among one hundred and one young adult females of age 18 to23 years. Data were collected on age, age at menarche and menstrual characteristics by using questionnaire.The mean age at menarche of the study participants was 12.07 (1.37) years. Duration of average menstrual discharge and number of days of peak discharge of the studied population was 4.84 (1.38) days and 3.03 (1.5) days, respectively. The result also revealed that menstruation skipped in 16.83per cent girls in last one year. When menstrual discharge problems were considered, it was observed that majority (74.25%) of the girls feels some degree of pain and discomfort. However, 8.91per cent of the girls had irregular periods.Premenstrual syndrome was observed in most (91.09%) of the girls, of which majorities reported abdominal pain (58.41%), followed by back pain (38.61%) and weakness (32.67%). An overwhelming majority (74.25%) of the girls reported the nature of menstrual discharge to be in the form of a mixture of fluid and clots. Interestingly, gynaecological problem was observed in all girls. Thefindings of this study would help health care professionals to devise future health care programs on menstrual health.