Factors Affecting Non Compliance to Exclusive Breastfeeding Among HIV Infected Mothers in Mbale Hospital.

Abstract

Background World over, the practice of exclusive breastfeeding among HIV positive mothers has received a great deal of attention due to its numerous benefits. For instance, the World Health Organization indicates that a child who has been exclusively breastfed has 14 times to survive death than non-breastfed child on top of drastically reducing deaths from acute respiratory infection and diarrhea. However, the compliance trend for HIV positive mothers in both developed and developing leaves a lot to be desired. In Uganda, statistics indicate that exclusive breastfeeding is at 62% while in Mbale regional referral hospital, the current study has shown that 13.2% of HIV positive mothers do not comply to exclusive breastfeeding. Accordingly, this study aimed at examining the factors affecting the non-compliance to exclusive breast feeding among HIV mothers attending Mbale regional referral hospital.

The study was guided by the objectives of ascertaining the socio-demographic factors affecting non-compliance to exclusive breastfeeding, examining the health system factors affecting non-compliance to exclusive breastfeeding as well as establishing the knowledge related factors affecting non-compliance to exclusive breastfeeding among HIV/AIDS mothers. To achieve these objectives, literature for different scholars was reviewed with a view of ascertaining their agreements and disagreements. Using a cross sectional research design and applying a quantitative research approach, the study was able to solicit views from 91 respondents although 135 had been targeted.

The major findings revealed that social demographic factors such as age, education level and marital status are predictive of the HIV positive mothers’ intent to breastfeed their children. In addition, the study has indicated that health system factors play role in the mothers’ decision to comply to exclusive breastfeeding. Notably, knowledge on the benefits as well as awareness on the means of breastfeeding were the most cited health system factors influencing exclusive breastfeeding among HIV positive mothers.

Based on these findings, the researcher recommended that authorities within Mbale hospital should come up with strategies to create awareness about the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding as well as educating and training HIV positive mothers on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding. The researcher proposed future researchers to establish suitable approaches for making exclusive breastfeeding more acceptable among HIV positive mothers in village settings and establishing suitable ways to increase the uptake of breast milk when mothers are away for long hours.