Abstract:

Background: Breast feeding should commonly be started at least in first hour immediately after delivery of the baby however, nearly 2 and of 3 infants are not exclusively breastfed [EBF] for the recommended 6 months a rate that has not improved in over 2 decades. Globally, only 38% of infants aged 0 to 6 months are exclusively breastfed in which the World Health Organization (WHO) has stressed that 1.5 million infants die annually, unnecessarily, from deprival or from insufficiency of breast milk. Due to this, we designed a study to evaluate the attitude and practices among breastfeeding women at Makongoro Health Centre in Nyamagana district, Mwanza region, Tanzania.

Methodology: This was a hospital based cross sectional study that was conducted at Makongoro health centre, Nyamagana district in Mwanza city. About 150 postnatal mothers were included in the study. Social – demographic data and other information were obtained by using a pre-tested structured questionnaire. Continuous data and Categorical data were summarized using mean with standard deviation and proportion (percent) respectively. Data was analyzed using STATA software version 13.

Results: It was shown that 91.3% (95% CI) of mothers preferred to feed their children breast milk only and 96.7% (95% CI) believed that exclusive breastfeeding is better than artificial feeds for the first 6 months of life (have positive attitude). Over 90% (95% CI) of mothers agreed that only exclusive breastfeeding enough up of 6 months. Approximately 10% of mothers did not practice EBF for 6 months. The factors found to associate significantly with EBF and complementary feeding were mother’s education (P-value 0.005, OR = 20.149 at 95% CI) and parity (P-value 0.019, OR=25.285 at 95% CI) but not occupation, mothers age and marital status.

Conclusion: Interventions that seek to increase exclusive breastfeeding should focus on women who are at risk of early discontinuation of breastfeeding.