Exclusive Breastfeeding Practice and Its Association with Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy among Mothers Giving Birth during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia: A Brief Report

Abstract

Background: Breast milk is the best nutri­tion for most infants, and current recommen­dations encourage mothers to keep giving breast milk during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subjects and Method: This is an analytic cross-sectional study involving mothers givi­ng birth since March 2020 and their infants aged under 6 months. An online-based ques­tion­naire, including the Breast­feeding Self-Efficacy Scale-Short Form (BSES-SF), was distributed through social media from April to September 2020. The dependent variable was exclusive breast­feeding rate, and the independent vari­ables were BSES-SF score, mother working status, educational level, place of birth, birth method, and COVID-19 status. Results: There were 113 respondents, and the rate of exclusive breastfeeding was 79.6%. Self-efficacy score in mothers who give exslusive breastfeeding (Mean= 58.4; SD= 0.8) was higher than non exclusive breast­feed­ing (Mean= 44.8; SD= 13.4) and it was statisfically significant (p <0.001). Conclusion: This study showed that during the COVID-19 pandemic exclusive breast­feedi­ng rate might remain high in popular­tions with good breastfeeding self-efficacy. Keywords: exclusive breastfeeding, breast­fee­ding self-efficacy, child nutrition, COVID-19 Correspondence: Angelina. Child Health Department, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Pelita Harapan. Jendral Sudirman 20, Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia. Email: Angelina.fk@uph.edu. Journal of Maternal and Child Health (2021), 06(04): 436-443 https://doi.org/10.26911/thejmch.2021.06.04.05