Abstract
Introduction: The controversy between the risk of HIV transmission through breast milk and the life saving benefits of breastfeeding remains to be a dilemma faced by HIV positive mothers. Cognizant of this, World Health Organization recommends avoidance of all breastfeeding by HIV positive mothers when replacement feeding is acceptable, feasible, affordable, sustainable and safe. Otherwise, exclusive breast feeding is recommended during the first 6 months of life. Despite this effort, exclusive breast feeding is uncommon practice among HIV infected women. The aim of this study was to assess attitude and practice towards exclusive breast feeding and its associated factors among HIV positive mothers attending public hospitals of southern Ethiopia, 2013. Methods: Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted from August 1 to September 15, 2013. A total of 436 HIV positive mothers were recruited in the study. Pretested and structured interviewer administered questionnaires were used for data collection. Data were entered to EpiInfo and exported to SPSS for further analysis. Logistic regression analyses were used to see the association of different variables. Odds ratios and 95% confidence interval were computed to determine the presence and strength of association. Results: More than half (56.7%) of mothers had favorable attitude towards exclusive breast feeding and nearly half (48.2%) mothers exclusively breast feed their infants. Mother’s education, occupation, house hold income, antenatal care attendance, counseling and HIV disclosure to spouse/family members were found to be associated with attitude and practice towards exclusive breast feeding. Conclusion: The attitude and prevalence of exclusive breast feeding practice were found to be very low. Therefore, HIV positive women opting to breastfeed should be encouraged to exclusively breast feed their infants and need to be promoted by policy makers and implementers.
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