Abstract
Background: Exclusive Breastfeeding (EBF) offers important protective effects on child survival. Knowledge on EBF is a prerequisite to enhance its practice among nursing mothers.
 Objective: To determine the knowledge of exclusive breastfeeding practice among nursing mothers attending Under-5 Welfare Clinic in a tertiary health facility in Nigeria.
 Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study involving 333 nursing mothers. Pre-tested self/interviewer administered questionnaires were used to obtain information from consenting eligible women. Knowledge was assessed using a 12-point score and classified as good or poor. Data obtained was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 25.
 Results: Our respondents had a mean age of 31±4.9years while 84.7% were 27 years and above. Majority were married (93.1%) with 57% of them having at least two (2) living children. Well over half of the respondents had attained a tertiary education. Antenatal care (ANC) was attended by 94.9% of the women where 96.8% said they had received advice on EBF. A total of 86% of the women had good knowledge score of EBF. Educational status and occupation showed statistically significant association with knowledge of EBF among the mothers (p=<0.001 and p=0.018) respectively while marital status (p=0.046), number of living children (p=0.001), educational status (p=<0.001) and occupation (p=0.050) all showed significant association with ANC attendance.
 Conclusion: The effect of female education on knowledge of health issues is brought to the fore by the findings of this study. More emphasis on delivering at health facilities where information to women on the practice of optimal breastfeeding is readily available will go a long way to reduce the infant and maternal mortality rates in Nigeria.
Highlights
Breast milk has the essential nutrients that a newborn need to grow healthy and strong
The effect of female education on knowledge of health issues is brought to the fore by the findings of this study
Adequate knowledge about exclusive breastfeeding is said to be the fundamental tool that can direct the course of Exclusive Breastfeeding (EBF) practice among mothers [1], [2]
Summary
Breast milk has the essential nutrients that a newborn need to grow healthy and strong. Adequate knowledge about exclusive breastfeeding is said to be the fundamental tool that can direct the course of EBF practice among mothers [1], [2]. Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is defined as exclusive intake of breast milk by an infant from its mother or wet nurse or expressed milk with addition of no other liquid or solid with the exception of drops or syrups consisting of vitamins, minerals supplements, or medicine and nothing else for the first six months [3]. The. Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factor Study ranked Suboptimal breastfeeding as the second largest risk factor for children under five, accounting for the loss of 47.5 million Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) in 2010 [5]. Sub-Saharan Africa has been the worst affected with the highest proportion of disease burden associated to suboptimal breastfeeding [5]. Knowledge on EBF is a prerequisite to enhance its practice among nursing mothers
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