Abstract
BackgroundExclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is recommended for the first six months of age by the World Health Organization. Mothers’ good knowledge and positive attitude play key roles in the process of exclusive breastfeeding practices. In this study, we report on a systematic review of the literature that aimed to examine the status of mothers’ knowledge, attitude, and practices related to exclusive breastfeeding in East Africa, so as to provide clues on what can be done to improve exclusive breastfeeding.MethodsA systematic review of peer-reviewed literature was performed. The search for literature was conducted utilizing six electronic databases, Pub med, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Embase, Science Direct, and Cochrane library, for studies published in English from January 2000 to June 2019 and conducted in East Africa. Studies focused on mothers’ knowledge, attitudes, or practices related to exclusive breastfeeding. All papers were reviewed using a predesigned data extraction form.ResultsSixteen studies were included in the review. This review indicates that almost 96.2% of mothers had ever heard about EBF, 84.4% were aware of EBF, and 49.2% knew that the duration of EBF was the first six months only. In addition, 42.1% of mothers disagreed and 24.0% strongly disagreed that giving breast milk for a newborn immediately and within an hour is important, and 47.9% disagreed that discarding the colostrum is important. However, 42.0% of mothers preferred to feed their babies for the first six months breast milk alone. In contrast, 55.9% of them had practiced exclusive breastfeeding for at least six months.ConclusionsExclusively breastfeeding among our sample is suboptimal, compared to the current WHO recommendations. Thus, it is important to provide antenatal and early postpartum education and periodical breastfeeding counseling, to improve maternal attitudes and knowledge toward breastfeeding practices.
Highlights
Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is recommended for the first six months of age by the World Health Organization
The full text of the remaining 41 relevant papers was assessed to make further exclusions; 25 were excluded because the participants were not mothers, the intervention examined in studies focused on outcomes of health professionals and not related to mothers, or knowledge, or attitude about EBF were not reported
The results of this study indicate that mothers with a high level of knowledge about the importance of exclusive breastfeeding know that only breast milk is nutritionally important for the baby in the first six months, the right time to give breast milk to the child within one hour after birth
Summary
Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is recommended for the first six months of age by the World Health Organization. Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is defined as giving breast milk only to the infant, without any additional food or drink, not even water in the first six months of life, with the exception of mineral supplements, vitamins, or medicines [1, 2]. The. World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recommend initiation of breastfeeding within the first hour after birth; exclusively breastfeed for the first six months of age and continuation of breastfeeding for up to two years of age or beyond in addition to adequate complementary foods [3, 4]. Optimal breastfeeding practices can prevent about 1.4 million deaths worldwide among children under five [6]. The lactation amenorrhea method is an important choice for postpartum family planning [4, 10]
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