Prevalence and obstacles of exclusive breast feeding among women attending primary health care centres in Cairo 2012

Abstract

Background: Breastfeeding is the best way of providing nutrition for the healthy growth and development of infants. It is an essential part of the reproductive process with important inferences for the health of mothers. Exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months is the recommended way for infants nourishing. Complementary foods should be introduced after the age of 6 months, and breastfeeding should continue until the age of 2 years. This study was conducted to measure the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding and to identify the most common obstacles confronting the practice between mothers attending El-Darrassa PHC centre.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study included all mothers attending the PHC centre. The data was collected by a questionnaire. The descriptive method and inferential statistics were used for data analysis.Results: The prevalence of breastfeeding was 97%, while the prevalence of exclusive breast-feeding was 51%. The obstacles facing breastfeeding were: 38% decreasing amount of mother’s milk, 16.8% the ease of artificial feeding and 16% the mothers’ working status. Nearly half knew the breastfeeding benefits for mother and child. There were no significant relations between exclusive breastfeeding and demographic characteristics, while there were significant relationships, between breastfeeding and medications contraindicated with lactation, easiness of artificial feeding, and decreased amounts of milk.Conclusions: The study revealed that the key factors for improving exclusive breastfeeding are raising the mothers’ awareness, enhancing health facilities policies to support mothers’ initiation of breastfeeding immediately after birth, promoting effective breastfeeding and enforcing laws protecting working mothers and facilitating their breastfeeding practice during work.