Barriers To Exclusive Breast-Feeding Among Mothers Attending Post-Natal Clinic In Mubende Regional Referral Hospital,Mubende District-Uganda

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: Exclusive breastfeeding refers to a process where an infant is fed with milk from the mother's breast only without any supplementary feeds. The nutritional needs of a normal full-term baby have been found to be adequately met by the breast milk of a healthy mother for the first four to six months of life. Scientific evidence is bound on the unique life-sustaining properties of breast milk, which no other substitute possesses. Breast feeding is very important for the mothers as well. Objective: Barriers for exclusive breast feeding among 80 mothers attending post-natal clinic in Mubende regional referral hospital. Method: This was descriptive cross sectional study on 80 mothers attending post-natal clinic in Mubende regional referral hospital. Structured interviews were used to collect data on exclusive breastfeeding among the study respondents. Chi square tests were used to assess the association between socio-demographic, and role of ANC in exclusive with exclusive breastfeeding. All statistical tests were two-tailed and P-value less than 0.05 were considered significant. Results: The proportion of mothers that were breast feeding exclusively was at 38.8%%. The results showed maternal age (χ2=28.474, P-value of 0.009), child’s age (χ2=3.569, P-value of 0.037), place of delivery (χ2=56.339, P-value of 0.000), health status during delivery (χ2=5.209, P-value of 0.019),, initiation of breastfeeding (χ2=8.013, P-value of 0.090), marital status (χ2=1.389, P-value of 0.008), educational level (χ2=23.293, P-value of 0.031), employment status (χ2=12.694, P-value of 0.001), income level (χ2=7.115, P-value of 0.044) , Lessons concerning EBF (χ2=15.073, P-value of 0.007), the person who provide the lesson (χ2=9.802, P-value of 0.000) and meaning of Exclusive breast feeding (χ2=7.123, P-value of 0.026) were significantly associated with Exclusive breast feeding. Therefore, results showed a statistically significant association with barriers to exclusive breast feeding. Conclusion and recommendation: The prevalence of Exclusive breast feeding was low. It is recommended that Promoting institutional delivery, revising the leave after birth, advice and counseling pregnant mothers about EBF, and enabling every mother to encourage colostrum feeding are recommended in order to increase the proportion of women practicing exclusive breastfeeding