Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Breast Feeding Among Breastfeeding Mothers Attending Kiryandongo District Hospital

ABSTRACT Background: Breastfeeding is a key tool for nourishing a baby, preventing childhood illnesses like obesity, and hypertension later on in life. In addition, it reduces the cost to the family and the entire country. Uganda to some extent faces a great deal of challenges, particularly in the health sector. Appropriate practices that support exclusive breastfeeding in the 1st six months will cause a major impact on reduction of childhood morbidity and mortality in the young and continued feeding up to 2 years gives a good health benefit for both mothers and children. Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of exclusive breastfeeding in mothers with infants between 1day to 2 years of age attending the immunization and the pediatric inpatient in Kiryandongo Hospital and to identify factors that affect exclusive breastfeeding. Method: A cross-section descriptive survey design was used, 187 respondents were selected randomly. The data were collected using a questionnaire and the data was analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency and percentages. Result: The result of this study showed that71.2 % knew the correct definition and duration of exclusive breastfeeding, 59.7% exclusively breastfeeds for the first six (6) months of life, 100% gave colostrum to their babies because they believed it provides nutrition and protection to their babies,87% breastfed on demand. The result also showed that there is a positive attitude of mothers toward exclusive breastfeeding as 86.6% of them agreed that breast milk alone is sufficient to the baby during the first six (6) months of life as well as believed that EBF has benefits to both the infants and the mother. 51% of respondents weaned their babies between 15- 18 months and 41% weaned between 19 months to2 years. Conclusion: It was concluded that there was a high level of knowledge on breastfeeding among the respondents, more than half of the respondents practiced exclusive breastfeeding as recommended and relatively all the respondents had positive attitude toward exclusive breastfeeding.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

DECLARATION............................................................................................................................ i

DEDICATION..............................................................................................................................iii

SUPERVISOR’S APPROVAL...................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT........................................................................................................... iv

LIST OF TABLES...................................................................................................................... vii

LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................. viii

ABBREVIATIONS...................................................................................................................... ix

DEFINITIONS .............................................................................................................................. x

ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................. xii

CHAPTER ONE ........................................................................................................................... 1

1.1INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................ 1

1.2Problem Statement............................................................................................................... 3

1.3General Objective................................................................................................................. 4

1.4Specific Objectives................................................................................................................ 5

1.5Research Question................................................................................................................ 5

1.6Significance of the Study...................................................................................................... 5

1.7Scope of the Study ................................................................................................................ 6

1.8Conceptual Framework ....................................................................................................... 7

CHAPTER TWO .......................................................................................................................... 8

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................................................... 8

2.1The Concept of Exclusive Breastfeeding............................................................................ 8

2.2The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative................................................................................ 8

2.3Benefits of Exclusive Breast Feeding................................................................................ 10

2.4Antenatal Breast Feeding Preparation............................................................................. 11

2.5Exclusive Breast Feeding in Developing Countries......................................................... 12

2.6Breastfeeding in Kiryandongo .......................................................................................... 13

vi

CHAPTER THREE.................................................................................................................. 14

3.0 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................... 14

3.1 Research Design................................................................................................................. 14

3.2 Study Population .............................................................................................................. 14

3.3Sampling Procedure........................................................................................................... 15

3.4Data Collection Method..................................................................................................... 16

3.5 Data collection instrument................................................................................................ 16

3.6 Data Analysis..................................................................................................................... 16

3.7Data Quality Control ......................................................................................................... 16

3.8Ethical Consideration ........................................................................................................ 17

3.9Limitation of the Study...................................................................................................... 17

CHAPTER FOUR....................................................................................................................... 18

4.0 RESULTS........................................................................................................................... 18

4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 18

4.2 Respondent’s data on breast feeding ........................................................................... 18

CHAPTER FIVE ........................................................................................................................ 30

5.1DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................................... 30

5.2Conclusions......................................................................................................................... 34

5.3Recommendations .............................................................................................................. 34

REFERENCES............................................................................................................................ 36

APPENDICES............................................................................................................................. 38

APPENDIX I: ACCEPTANCE LETTER .......................................................................... 38

Appendix II: Consent Form ................................................................................................... 39

APPENDIX III:QUESTIONNAIRE ..................................................................................... 40

Appendix IV: Research Budget ............................................................................................. 45

Appendix V: Research Work Plan 2017/2018 ...................................................................... 47

APPENDIX VI: MAP OF KIRYANDONGO DISTRICT.................................................. 48

APPENDIX VII: MAP OF UGANDA, LOCATION OF KIRYANDONGO.................... 49