Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Exclusive Breastfeeding

Abstract

Breast milk is natural, and it meets the baby's nutritional needs during the initial 6 months of existence and continues up to a year with the initiation of complementary feeding to ensure infants' nutritional requirements are met (WHO, 2016). Except for medicine, breastfeeding exclusively means providing breast milk only for the initial six months of life. Though breastfeeding exclusively remains important, its practice differs in different parts of the world. According to the WHO, only 34% of infants globally were breastfed exclusively for at least four months of their lives. Therefore, a cross-sectional study was designed to examine the knowledge, attitude, practice, and relationship that exists between these variables towards breastfeeding exclusively (EBF) among multiparous mothers at Bundung Maternal and Child Health Hospital from February 2021 to August 2022. Out of the study population, 380 were sampled using the sample size determination formula and full data was obtained from 370 women through convenient sampling and a well-designed questionnaire was used to interview participants. The questionnaire consisted of demographic data, knowledge, attitude, practice levels as well as the relationship between the variables. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20.0 and the multiple logistic regression after the responses were collected. The result of the study showed poor knowledge level 56.3% and 38.3% average knowledge level of mothers. The attitude level was generally negative as 76.8% and the practice level was poor as 80.1% of the mothers do not practice EBF. The practice level was three (3) times lower among mothers with good knowledge (p≤0.05) and there was no statistical significance between practice and attitude levels.