Abstract:

Background: Breast feeding of young babies and children with milk from the woman’s breasts. Breastfeeding has many health benefits for both the mother and infant. Breast milk contains all the nutrients an infant needs in the first six months of life. Together with other benefits, breastfeeding creates bond of love between the mother and her child, and helps with child spacing. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that infants be exclusively breastfed for the six months, followed by breastfeeding along with complementary foods for up to two years of age or beyond.

Methodology: The study was cross sectional prospectively study, a total number of 155 women with children less than six-months of age and multipara pregnant women attending at Makongoro Reproductive and Child Health Centre (RCH) who were willing to participate in the study. Data was analyzed using SPSS.

Results: A total of 155 women participated in the study, where by slightly more than half of the population were aged between 15-25 years (51.6%), and of these, majority were married (85.8%). Assessing about the advantages of breast feeding, most of them were aware, (88.4%). However of the mothers less than half (49%) practiced exclusive breastfeeding, these were primary leavers. Most of the factors that hindered breast feeding were employment (20%), early cutoff of breast milk, family social problems and maternal illness.

Conclusion: Based on the study findings most women have knowledge on EBF however several factors are still hindering the efficiency exclusive breast feeding, these include employment, high level of education, social economic problems, maternal illness and early cessation of milk production.

Keywords: Breastfeeding, Exclusive breastfeeding, Infant, Rate and duration, factors affecting breastfeeding.