Abstract
Background: Breast milk has nutritional, anti-allergic, anti-infective, defensive, developmental, psychological and socio-economic proprieties for both mother and infant. So, exclusive breast-feeding (EBF) is a unique source of feeding during the first six months of an infant’s life. Though the numerous proprieties of breast milk, the median duration of EBF in Egypt is 1.8 months making the identification of risk factors a high priority. The aim was to assess factors affecting mothers' choice of artificial feeding postpartum and during the first six months of infant life. Design; A descriptive cross –sectional exploratory was used. Sample: A purposive sample of 365 mothers were chosen. Tools: I- Socio demographic questionnaire. II- Anthropometric measurements. III- Factors of artificial feeding questionnaire. Results; the rate of EBF is very low as 80% of mothers gave artificial feeding, while only 20% gave mixed feeding. Artificial feeding was associated significantly with socio demographic characteristics as 44.7 % are in age group 20 - < 30 years and 30.1% are read and write. Regarding maternal factors, 60 % of the mothers have insufficient time. Likewise, 85.2 % of the mothers have feeling of need to teach infant to eat and 74.8 % of them had previous experience of artificial feeding. Regarding feeding practices, 70 % gave babies pre-lacteal fluids. Conclusion; Timely initiation and pattern of breastfeeding at Minia is unsatisfactory as 80 % of the participant mothers did not apply WHO recommendations attributed significantly to specific socio-demographic characteristics of infant/ mother, maternal, environmental, infant and health care services factors. Recommendations; Pre natal and post natal education of mothers to achieve longer duration of breast feeding and overcoming maternal, infant and environmental barriers. Provide continuous training of health care providers on EBF importance at all levels.
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