Even though sanitation was es

A preference for sons or for more sons than daughters has been documented in several countries in the world.

The expectant and lactating mothers are considered as nutritionally vulnerable group especially in the developing countries of the world. Due to nursing process mothers are subjected to nutritional stresses.

In the last decade, several international and national movements have focused their attention, on the long neglected areas of women's reproductive health.

Demographic literature is replete with observations of an inverse relation between certain attributes of modernity and family size (Thompson 1929; Notestein 1945; Coale and Hoover 1958; Leiberman 1980, Srinivasan 1986).

Breastfeeding and lactational amenorrhoea play a unique role in child health, birth spacing and fertility regulation.