EXCLUSIVE BREAST-FEEDING RELATED KNOWLEDGE, PERCEPTION AND PRACTICES AMONG NURSING MOTHERS ATTENDING SAM ETHNAN AIRFORCE BASE INFANT WELFARE CLINIC, IKEJA, LAGOS, NIGERIA

Abstract

Exclusive Breast-Feeding (EBF) is effective for preventing some childhood morbidities and promotion growth and development of children. Anecdotal reports revealed that Nursing Mothers (NM) in military establishments experience barriers to the adoption of EBF due to the prevailing military practices. However, information on the gaps in their knowledge, perception and practices, which may be useful for designing appropriate interventions, has not been adequately documented. This study was therefore designed to investigate the knowledge, perception and practices relating to EBF among NM attending the infant welfare clinic (IWC) of Sam Ethnan Airforce Base, Ikeja, Lagos. The study was a cross-sectional survey involving all the consenting 423 NM who registered their children at the IWC from November-December, 2014. A semi-structured questionnaire which included questions on socio-demographic characteristics, a 12-point knowledge scale perception and practices relating to EBF, was used for data collection. Knowledge score ≤4,>4-8 and >8 were classified as poor, fair and good respectively. Supportive and non-supportive perception of EBF were categorized as favourable and non-favourable, respectively. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, t-test and chi square test at p=0.05. Respondents’ age was 28.7±5.2 years, 97.6% were literate, 97.4% were currently married, 50.4% had secondary education and 16.3% were junior female air force officers. Respondents’ sources of information on EBF included clinic [95.9%], radio [74.4%], and their own mothers [63.5%]. Majority [88.7%] knew the correct duration of EBF to be six months. The correctly mentioned advantages of EBF included lactational ammenorrhoea, thus serving as a natural family planning method [60.3%], and pro motion of mother-childbonding [94.8%]. Respondents’ knowledge of EBF was 8.8±1.6; those with poor, fair and good knowledge accounted for 2.6%, 25.% and 71.6%, respectively. Many respondents [67.6%] favourably perceived Breast Milk [BM] alone as sufficient for a baby, while 58.4% was of the perception that BM should not be supplemented with other foods during EBF period. Respondents' non-favourable perceptions included views that EBF is an old- fashioned practice [9.2%], time-consuming [33.6%] and practiced only by unemployed mothers [37.1%].The proportion of respondents’ who had ever practiced EBF was 45.2%. Factors that adversely affected respondents’ EBF practice included job demand [46.3%], inadequacy of BM [24.4%] and ill health [4.9%]. Most [93.7%] of the 191 respondents who had ever practiced EBF were doing so at the time of the survey; of this sub-group only 42.5% would breast –feed exclusively for six months. A significantly higher proportion of respondents aged 20-29 year [52.1%] had good knowledge of EBF was not significantly different between currently married 8.8±1.7 and unmarried respondents [8.9±1.0]. Knowledge of exclusive breast-feeding was high among the study population at the air force base; however the level of adoption of existed among the study population. Interventions such as public enlightenment and patient education are recommended to address the situation.