| dc.description.abstract | Background: Globally, infant breast feeding is well recognized since ancient ages as the best feeding
method for infants because of its associated benefits including providing immunologic protection
against death from infectious diseases, such as diarrhea, respiratory infections, Otis media, among
others. Despite this relevance, breastfeeding rates among women with infants has been stagnated with
global statistics indicating that only 45% of new borne are put to the breast within the first hour of
birth, and roughly the same proportion of infants less than 1 year of age are exclusively breastfed. In
Uganda, available statistics estimate that the current death toll of 141,000 children dying annually
could be due to inadequate breastfeeding practices. Therefore, this study sought to determine the
knowledge, attitudes and practices among mothers towards breast feeding of infants in Kasana H/C
IV, Luweero district.
Methods: The study employed a cross sectional research design in which opinions were obtained
from 113 mothers although only 80 successfully filled and returned the questionnaires, giving a
response rate of 70.8%. These questionnaires were coded, tabulated, analyzed and processed using
SPSS ver20 from which findings were derived.
Results: The findings indicated that knowledge factors were significant predictors of breastfeeding
intent among mothers with infants less than one year whereby mothers who had adequate knowledge
on the relevance of exclusive breastfeeding were likely to breastfeed their children for longer before
adding food supplements. In relation to attitudes, the study revealed that maternal attitudinal factors
such as perception of inadequate support from community members, shyness during breastfeeding
especially in public, poor perception of breastfeeding in minimizing family expenses were responsible
for their failure to comply with the recommended infant breastfeeding practices. Moreover, the study
found out inadequate practices to infant breastfeeding including use of per-lacteal feeds before the
recommended age of the infant, less time of exclusive breastfeeding, and use of food supplements.
Conclusion: It can be concluded from the study that knowledge and attitudinal factors are very
significant in explaining variations in infant breastfeeding. In the same way, the practices of mothers
such as use of per-lacteal feeds, less time of exclusive breastfeeding and use of food supplements
were cited as influential among breastfeeding mothers. Thus, breastfeeding mothers with infants need
to pay attention to these factors if they are to maximize the benefits of infant breastfeeding.
Recommendations: Based on these findings, the researcher recommended that health workers should
ensure dissemination of information to create awareness among mothers on best infant feeding
practices especially on issues of frequency of breastfeeding, when to initiate food supplements,
benefits and limitations of food supplements. More so, there is need to train midwives on proper
customer care skills as this will bridge the gap between mothers and health service providers and this
will improve their attitudes. | en_US |
