The Practice of Exclusive Breastfeeding and Its Sociodemographic Determinants amongst Nursing Mothers at a Tertiary Health Care Institution in South East, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Breastfeeding is a natural and critical act that provides nutrients and energy for the infant and young child; and through a public health intervention such as exclusive breastfeeding, it improves the survival rates of the infant. Objective: To determine the breastfeeding practices and the sociodemographic determinants of exclusive breastfeeding amongst nursing mothers present at the Imo state university teaching hospital Orlu. Methods: A cross sectional analytical study design was used that included all nursing mothers present within a 4 week study period. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive analyses were done with frequencies and summary statistics. Chi square statistics were computed to determine significant associations and binary logistic regression was used to determine sociodemographic predictors of exclusive breastfeeding practice. P value was set at 0.05 significant level. Results: While most of the respondents were aware of exclusive breastfeeding (92.5%), only 24% of the respondents were practicing exclusive breastfeeding. Work and school activities, and the feeling that breast milk was insufficient for the needs of the baby were the reasons for not practicing exclusive breastfeeding for a majority of the respondents (56.6%). Furthermore, 61% of those that were practicing non-exclusive breast feeding gave a cereal or infant formula in addition to the breast milk for 3 to 6 months. It was further revealed that there were statistically significant relationships between breastfeeding practice and maternal age (p = 0.003), level of maternal education (p = How to cite this paper: Chineke, H.N., Iwu, A.C., Diwe, K.C., Duru, C.B., Uwakwe, K.A., Emmanuel, E.E., Oluoha, U.R., Madubueze, U.C., Ndukwu, E.U. and Ohale, I. 0.005) and maternal occupation (p = 0.006). Conclusion: Understanding and taking into cognizance the sociodemographic characteristics will enable the design, and adequate delivery of appropriate and effective strategies that improve exclusive breastfeeding practice.

Trends and factors associated to early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding and duration of breastfeeding in Ethiopia: evidence from the Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey 2016

“…Mothers who had no education at all or only primary education were less likely to feed breast milk exclusively for the first 6 months. This finding is in agreement with previous studies reported in Ethiopia [46][47][48], Malaysia [49], and Nigeria [34,50]. Maternal and child health care services such as postnatal and antenatal care, were risk factors of exclusive breastfeeding; i.e., mothers who received professional postnatal and antenatal care were more likely to exclusively breastfeed their infant.…”

“…The practice of exclusive breastfeeding was congruent with a similar previous study conducted in Uganda [26] which reported 46%, and in East Gojjam zone, Amhara regional state [29] reported 50.10%. In contrast, a study done in a Rajkot district of India 62% [30], Dilla Zuria District, Gedeo Zone 57.60% [31], Enderta woreda, of Tigray regional, state 70.20% [32], Ghana 64% [33], and Nigeria 56.60% [34] reported a higher proportion of exclusive breastfeeding. These differences might be the variation in health service utilization, culture, socioeconomic status of the study participants', taboos about breastfeeding (colostrum) and methodological approaches used in the studies [39].…”

“…The main independent variables were mother's education, father's education attainment, maternal age, wealth index of household, religion, place of residence, region of residence, professional antenatal and postnatal care, place of delivery, mode of delivery, type of birth, sex of child, size of child at birth, employment status of mother and parity was selected from the available similar studies on the subject [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. The DHS use five wealth quintiles.…”