Background: Mother to child transmission of HIV can occur when fetus is in uterus, during the process of labor and delivery and also through breastfeeding.
Design: A descriptive cross sectional study was done in Mwananyamala hospital Kinondoni district Dar es Salaam in October 2015 that focused on women attending clinic.
Objective: Assessment of perception and knowledge on exclusive breastfeeding among women attending postnatal care at Mwananyamala hospital.
Results and conclusion: One third of the women interviewed on, didn’t exclusively breastfeed their babies, neither did they know the importance of doing so.
Recommendation: The Ministry of health should emphasize on formulating more efficient programs that will aim at giving appropriate knowledge about the importance of exclusive breastfeeding to women attending antenatal care as well as reaching those who don’t yet know the importance of attending antenatal care as well as reaching those who don’t yet know the importance of attending antenatal care, so that these mothers can avoid all escapable reasons for not exclusively breast feeding their babies, all in focus of achieving good health, development and growth of babies.
Wurzburg Road 35, BMC Premises, Post Code: 33102: P. O Box 1464, Mwanza – Tanzania: Phone: +255 28 298 3384: Fax: +255 28 298 3386: Email: vc@bugando.ac.tz : www.bugando.ac.tz