An Explorative Qualitative Study of Experiences and Challenges to Exclusive Breastfeeding Among Mothers in Rural Zimbabwe

Abstract

Breastfeeding messages ought to be context specific, targeting custodians of tradition and belief systems, including men and significant others, to create a supportive and enabling environment for mothers to exclusively breastfeed."

Facilitators and Barriers to Exclusive Breastfeeding in Thailand: A Narrative Review

“…Mother's breastfeeding knowledge, such as knowing the advantages of breastfeeding and being aware of how to express and store breast milk, were also identified as facilitators of EBF. These findings are corroborated by various studies in other parts of the world [3,113,114]. Similarly, in the South East Asian region, a study conducted in Laos found that mothers older than 35 years tended to continue EBF for a year, although in contrast, those with low economic status were more likely to continue to breastfeed [115].…”

“…Support from family members (i.e. grandparents or the husband) was shown to have a positive impact on EBF, and this has been found in other studies [114,116,121,122,128,129]. Lack of family support was also identified as barrier in a study in India [130].…”

“…Barriers related to maternal factors identified in the review included being a teenage mother, doing manual labor, working away from home and a lack of breastfeeding knowledge, which are similar to findings in Laos, India, Vietnam and Zimbabwe [114,115,118,119]. Additional barriers related to the mother were being a first time mother, her physical condition (such as nipple problems and breast pain) and negative attitudes to breastfeeding.…”

“…Similar traditional behaviors have also been reported in the Middle East, Southern Africa, East Africa, China and Brazil [113,123,128,131]. In Zimbabwe, water as well as herbal concoctions, are given to children with the belief that they could improve their health [114]. These cultural habits are not only ascribed to grandmothers, but also to mothers [121].…”

“…Additional barriers related to the mother were being a first time mother, her physical condition (such as nipple problems and breast pain) and negative attitudes to breastfeeding. Other studies in various countries and regions [Pakistan, Zimbabwe, United Arab Emirates, Ghana, Uganda, West Africa and China] have identified insufficient breast milk supply reported as a barrier to 6 months EBF by mothers [113,114,117,[120][121][122][123][124]. Breast conditions have been reported as a barrier in other studies conducted in the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Africa, and South America [113,117,121,125,126].…”