Knowledge and Practice of Exclusive Breastfeeding Among Mothers Seen at the University of PortHarcourt Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life is a natural, cost effective and feasible intervention that promotes child survival. Exclusive breastfeeding has been promoted severally but its practice has remained poor in Nigeria. This study aims to determine the knowledge and practice of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers who bring their children to the department of Paediatrics University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. This was a descriptive cross-sectional hospital based study carried out from January 2012 to December 2013. A total of three hundred mothers presenting with their children for treatment at the Department of Paediatrics outpatient clinics, emergency and children medical wards were consecutively recruited into the study. Data on demographics, marital status, socioeconomic characteristics, knowledge and practice of breastfeeding were obtained using a structured self-administered questionnaire. The respondents were aged between 18 and 55years with a mean age of 31.59+6.6years. Most of the women were between 26-35years, majority (39%) were aged 25-30years and majority(89.3%) were married. Thirteen percent had no formal education while majority (63.8%) had tertiary education. Ninety eight percent of the respondents had heard about EBF. Knowledge of the correct meaning of EBF was 91.3% while awareness of the benefits of EBF was 69.3%. Thirty five (11.7%) practiced EBF for the first 6months. More than half (57.7%) of the respondents initiated breastfeeding within 1hour of delivery while 24.7% did so after 1hour but within 24hours of delivery. One hundred and twenty seven (42.3%) of the mothers had given prelacteal feeds to their babies. Of those who gave prelacteal feeds, 8.6% gave plain water, 6.3% glucose water, and 0.3% infant formula and herbs. In conclusion, the practice of exclusive breastfeeding in this study is very low and therefore there is an urgent need to scale up programmes that will promote exclusive breastfeeding in our region.

Knowledge, Practice and Problems of Exclusive Breastfeeding among Mothers Attending the Outpatient Clinic of a Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative Designated Hospital in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

“…This finding correlates with the 39.4% and 45% reported by Nukpezah et al [29] in Ghana and Sultania et al [25] in India. This result is however lower than the 53%-64.6% reported in other studies conducted in Nigeria [3,11] and Ethiopia [21]. It was however higher than the 31% reported by Al Banali in Saudi Arabia [23].…”

“…The prevalence rate of exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months observed in this study compares to the observed 43.6% reported by Wolde et al [21] in a study carried out in Ethiopia. There is a better EBF practice in this study compared to the earlier studies in Port Harcourt carried out about 3-4years before this study, that reported EBF prevalence of 11.7% [11] and 22.5% [12]. This probably highlights the fact that dissemination of EBF information by health workers and media outlets is yielding results, although there is still room to do more.…”

“…In a study carried out in Bayelsa, 31.3% of the mothers also knew that EBF was beneficial to them and 71.3% were aware of the benefits of EBF to the child [19]. However, Yaguo-Ide et al [11] in Port Harcourt reported that 69% of the women interviewed in their study knew of one or more benefits of EBF to the mother but the study did not explore their knowledge of the benefits of EBF to children. No study demonstrated that mothers were aware that EBF was beneficial to both mother and child as observed in this study and not just independently to only the mother or child.…”

“…Factors that have been implicated for this trend include ignorance, low maternal education, non-vaginal birth, sociocultural beliefs, maternal health, mother's need to return to work, inadequate work-based support, poor spousal and family support for EBF [8,9,10]. Some studies on breastfeeding have been reported in Port Harcourt and the EBF rates for 6 months reported were suboptimal at 11.7% in 2013 by Yaguo-Ide et al [11] and 22.5% by Alex Hart et al [12] in 2014. Besides, while the study by Alex-Hart et al [12] assessed EBF practice and problems associated with it in Choba community in Rivers State, Nigeria, it did not assess the knowledge of the mothers on exclusive breastfeeding.…”

“…Besides, while the study by Alex-Hart et al [12] assessed EBF practice and problems associated with it in Choba community in Rivers State, Nigeria, it did not assess the knowledge of the mothers on exclusive breastfeeding. On the other hand, the study by Yaguo Ide et al [11] was institution based and assessed the knowledge and practice of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers with infants but failed to identify the problems associated with EBF. Given the importance of EBF in optimal infant nutrition and reduction of childhood morbidity and mortality; and the fact that the last evaluation of EBF was carried out some years back, this study was undertaken to ascertain an improvement or otherwise in the knowledge, practice and problems associated with EBF amongst mothers in Port Harcourt, attending the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH), a baby friendly hospital initiative hospital in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.…”